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in 


U.  S.  DEPARTMENT  OE  AGRICULTURE. 


ARBOR  DAY: 


ITS    HISTORY    AND    OBSERVANCE 


A     ' 


N.    H.    KGIvKSTON. 


WASHINGTON: 

GOVKRNMKNT    PRINTING    OFFICK. 
1896. 


LETTER  OF  SUBMITTAL. 

TJ.  S.  Department  of  Agriculture, 

Washington,  J).  C,  January  29,  1896. 

Sir  :  I  have  the  honor  to  submit  the  accompanying  bulletin  on  Arbor 
Day,  prepared  by  your  direction. 

Its  aim  is  to  give  an  authentic  account  of  the  origin,  history,  and 
uses  of  the  day — now  observed  throughout  our  country  and  also  in 
other  lands — which  has  been  regarded  with  interest  by  the  Department 
ever  since  its  observance  began,  and  to  oft'er  such  suggestions  and  heli)S 
as  may  serve  to  increase  its  usefulness. 

It  is  impossible  to  sketch  the  history  of  Arbor  Day  in  even  the  brief- 
est manner  without  frequent  reference  to  the  present  Secretary  of  the 
Department,  with  whom  the  day  is  so  intimately  connected.  If  the 
writer  of  this  bulletin  had  felt  at  liberty  to  disregard  the  restraints 
imposed  by  the  official  character  of  the  work,  a  much  more  frequent 
mention  of  Mr.  Morton's  name  would  have  been  the  result. 

Some  of  the  illustrations  in  the  bulletin,  especially  those  of  leaves, 
are  from  Apgar's  Trees  of  the  Northern  United  States,  copyright,  1892, 
by  the  Americnn  Book  Company,  to  whom  thanks  are  due  for  permis- 
sion to  use  them,  it  having  been  found  impracticable  to  prepare  original 
figures  of  this  character  without  delaying  the  bulletin  until  after  the 
arrival  of  the  time  set  apart  in  many  States  for  the  observance  of  Arbor 
Day.     Similar  thanks  are  due  to  others  also  for  like  favors. 

I  take  occasion  here  also  to  thank  the  superintendents  of  public 

instruction  and  others  who  have  so  readily  and  courteously  responded 

to  my  invitation  and  rendered  aid,  by  suggestion  or  otherwise,  in  the 

j^reparation  of  this  publication.    Wherever  material  from  such  or  other 

sources  has  been  incorporated  in  these  pages  I  have  endeavored  to  give 

credit  to  the  respective  authors.    For  the  rest  the  writer  is  responsible. 

Respectfully, 

N.  H.  Egleston. 

Hon.  Chas.  W.  Dabney,  Jr., 

Assistant  Secretary, 


TABLE   OF   CONTENTS. 


Page. 

Commercial  value  of  trees 5 

Origin  and  history  of  Arbor  Day 9 

States  and  Territories  observing  Arbor^Day 18 

Arbor  Day  celebrations 19 

Methods  of  observing  Arbor  Day 20 

Addresses  and  extracts 22 

Arbor  Day — Its  origin  and  growth,  by  J.  Sterling  Morton 22 

Observance  of  Arbor  Day  by  schools,  by  Hon.  B.  G,  Northroj) 27 

Arbor  Day  for  the  Commonwealth,  by  Dr.  E.  E.  Higbee 28 

Value  and  uses  of  Arbor  Day,  by  Prof.  George  Mull 29 

Planting  trees  a  patriotic  duty 32 

Schools  of  agriculture  and  horticulture,  by  Hon.  Charles  R.  Skinner 34 

Encouraging  words  for  Arbor  Day 36 

Trees  and  schools 38 

Trees  as  living  things 39 

Trees  in  masses— forests ^ 43 

Trees  in  their  leafless  state 46 

Leaves,  and  what  they  do 47 

The  best  use  of  Arbor  Day 50 

Tree  planting 53 

Street  planting 55 

Planting  on  school  grounds 59 

Planting  on  lawns  and  in  parks 62 

Aids  to  success  in  planting 63 

Method  of  planting 64 

Opinions  of  representative  men 64 

Suggestions  for  programmes 67 

Miscellaneous  readings 69 

Selections  for  recitations 77 

Topics  for  Arbor  Day  essays 80 

3 


INTRODUCTION. 


Arbor  Day,  from  being  only  a  humble  expedient  of  one  of  our 
Western  States  a  few  years  ago,  has  become  a  national  holiday  and  one 
of  our  important  institutions.  Its  original  design  has  been  modified 
since  its  observance  has  become  associated  with  our  schools.  It  is  now 
not  only  a  day  for  tree  planting  for  economic  and  aesthetic  purposes,  but 
its  observance  has  been  made  the  means  of  securing  much  valuable 
knowledge  in  regard  to  plant  and  tree  life,  of  cultivating  in  the  young 
the  powers  of  observation,  and  kindling  in  their  minds  an  interest  in 
natural  objects  which  will  be  a  lifelong  source  of  benefit  and  pleasure. 

Is  it  too  much  to  hope,  also,  that  this  Arbor  Day  festival,  engaging 
our  children  in  its  observance  so  generally  aiul  so  pleasantly  with  songs, 
recitations,  and  the  planting  of  trees  and  shrubs  around  the  school- 
houses  and  along  the  streets  or  in  public  parks  and  other  places,  may 
have  the  effect  of  developing  in  coming  generations  a  keener  apprecia- 
tion of  the  value  and  the  beauty  of  trees  than  has  hitherto  been  felt  in 
our  country,  and  that  thus  the  reckless  destruction  of  our  forests,  now 
going  on  with  such  threatening  consequences,  may  be  arrested  before 
the  calamities  are  upon  us  which  have  befallen  other  countries  through 
the  loss  of  their  trees "? 


ARBOR  DAY:  HISTORY  AND  OBSERVANCE. 


COMMERCIAL  VALUE  OF  TREES. 


Arbor  Day  lias  its  abundant  justification  in  the 
surpassttig  value  of  trees  from  whatever  jjoint  of 
view  they  are  considered.  Their  beauty  is  felt 
by  all.  Nothing  contributes  so  much  to  make  the 
world  a  pleasant  place  of  abode  for  man.  Just 
as  anyone  has  the  true  home  feeling  and  seeks 
to  create  a  home  for  himself,  he  seeks  the  trees 
as  being  an  indispensable  aid  in  the  accom- 
plishment of  his  purpose.  He  must  have  the 
trees  around  his  dwelling  place.  He  must  have 
their  shelter  and  their  shade,  their  beauty  of 
form,  of  leaf,  and  blossom,  and  fruit,  their  ever- 
varying  aspect  with  every  change  of  earth  and 
sky,  of  sunshine  and  cloud.  In  short,  he  must 
have  their  companionship  in  his  daily  life.  But 
looked  at  apart  from  all  such  feeling  and  senti- 
ment, looked  at  not  in  their  living  but  in  their 
dead  state,  looked  at  as  mere  lumber  or  material  for  man's  constructive 
purposes,  for  the  thousand  uses  of  daily  life,  the  trees  have  an  almost 
incomparable  value.  Estimated  by  their  money  value  alone  the  prod- 
ucts of  the  forest  exceed  those  from  almost  any  other  source. 

We  speak  of  the  ^'precious  metals,"  gold  and  silver;  and  they  are  so 
precious  in  the  esteem  of  most  persons  that  multitudes  are  ready  to 
forsake  all  other  occupations  and  rush  in  pursuit  of  them  wherever 
they  may  be  found  or  there  is  even  a  faint  hope  of  finding  them.  Now 
we  give  to  the  hunters  of  these  precious  metals  special  privileges  in 
the  prosecution  of  their  quest  such  as  are  not  given  to  people  engaged 
in  other  employments.  It  would  seem  that  the  mining  of  gold  and  sil- 
ver is  the  most  important  interest  of  the  country.  It  certainly  holds  a 
very  prominent  position  in  the  public  estimation. 

But  the  last  report  of  the  Director  of  the  Mint  gives  the  value  of  the 
product  of  the  gold  and  silver  mines  of  the  United  States  for  the  year 
1894  as  follows:  Gold,  $;59,r)0(),0()0 ;  silver,  $31,422,000;  total,  $70,922,000. 
At  the  same  time,  the  most  recent  and  careful  estimates  of  the  value  of 

5 


6  ARBOR   DAY ITS    HISTORY    AND    OBSERVANCE. 

the  products  of  our  forests  during  tlie  same  year  make  it  $1,058,650,859, 
or  fifteen  times  that  of  gold  and  silver. 

Another  comparison  is  very  significant.  If  we  add  to  the  gold  and 
silver  products  that  of  all  other  minerals,  including  such  prominent 
ones  as  iron,  copper,  lead,  zinc,  coal,  lime,  natural  gas,  petroleum,  salt, 
slate,  building  stones,  and  the  twenty-five  or  more  remaining,  which 
are  less  important,  we  shall  have  for  the  value  of  all  our  mineral  prod- 
ucts obtained  during  the  year  1894,  $553,352,996,  or  only  about  one-half 
the  value  of  our  forest  products. 

Again,  we  may  make  a  comparison  in  a  different  direction  and  with 
no  less  striking  results.  The  statistical  report  of  the  Department  of 
Agriculture  gives  the  value  of  our  cereal  crops  for  the  year  1894  as 
follows : 

Wheat $225,902,025 

Corn 554,719,162 

Oats 214,816,920 

Rye 13,395,476 

Barley 27,134,127 

Buckwheat 7, 040, 238 

Total 1,043,007,948 

or  less  by  $15,000,000  than  our  one  forest  crop. 

Is  it  not  worth  our  while,  therefore,  to  perpetuate  if  possible  such 
a  crop,  and  to  guard  against  anything  which  threatens  to  diminish  it? 
Ought  we  not,  by  every  means  within  our  control,  to  see  that  the 
source  of  this  most  valuable  supply  is  not  lessened  in  its  capability  of 
yielding  such  a  preeminently  valuable  contribution  to  our  welfare  and 
comfort  *? 

The  need  of  tree  planting,  looked  at  in  the  wide  view,  results  from 
the  fact  that  we  have  been  and  are  depleting  our  forest  area  at  an 
unreasonable  rate.  The  spread  of  population  into  the  great  treeless 
plains  beyond  the  Mississippi  has  made  a  largely  increased  demand 
for  lumber,  and  in  response  to  that  demand  we  have  been  for  years 
consuming  our  forests  at  a  rate  far  beyond  the  supply  furnished  by 
their  annual  growth.  The  best  estimates  make  the  annual  consump- 
tion of  our  forests,  for  fuel  and  lumber  chiefly,  25,000,000,000  cubic 
feet.  To  furnish  this  amount  would  require  the  produce  of  the  annual 
growth  of  1,200,000,000  acres  of  woodland,  whereas  our  total  forest 
area  is  less  than  500,000,000  acres,  which  is  no  more  than  we  need  as 
a  permanent  stock  of  woodland  for  the  country.  It  will  be  seen,  then, 
that  more  than  half  of  our  annual  consumption  is  a  draft  by  so  much 
upon  our  forest  capital,  when  we  should  be  only  drawing  from  the 
forests  the  amount  of  their  annual  growth,  or  the  interest  of  that  capi- 
tal. How  long  would  it  take  a  millionaire  to  become  a  bankrupt  if  he 
should  be  annually  trenching  upon  his  money  capital  at  a  like  rate? 

Few  persons  realize  the  enormous  and  often  wasteful — that  is,  un- 
necessary— consumption  of  our  forests.     That  consumption  amounts 


ARBOR    DAY — ITS    HISTORY    AND    OBSERVANCE.  7 

to  350  cubic  feet  per  capita,  as  against  12  to  14  cubic  feet  per  capita  in 
Great  Britain  and  about  10  cubic  feet  in  Germany. 

Some  specifications  may  lielp  us  to  apprehend  the  situation.  Our 
raihoads  consume,  on  an  average,  annually  for  their  construction 
500,000,000  cubic  feet  of  our  very  best  timber.  Our  mines  use  for 
internal  props  and  for  the  reduction  of  their  ores  immense  amounts. 
One  mine  may  be  taken  as  an  illustration.  The  Anaconda  Mining 
Company,  of  Montana — well  named  Anaconda,  in  view  of  its  enormous 
capacity  for  swallowing  the  forests  whole,  as  it  were — made  a  state- 
ment four  years  ago,  now  on  tile  in  one  of  the  Departments  of  the  Gov- 
ernment, from  which  it  appears  that  during  a  period  of  six  months  it 
consumed  05,000  cords  of  wood  and  18,500,000  feet  of  lumber.  At  the 
same  time  the  company  stated  that  its  daily  consumption  hereafter 
would  be,  wood  700  cords,  lumber  100,000  feet,  and  its  consumption 
for  the  year  1892  would  be,  wood  255,000  cords,  lumber  40,000,000  feet. 
This  lumber  is  mostly  in  the  form  of  timber  used  as  mine  props. 

Most  of  the  wood  and  timber  used  by  this. and  other  mines  in  the 
Kocky  Mountain  and  other  western  regions  is  cut  from  the  public 
lands.  Such  is  the  indulgence  shown  by  the  Government  that  those 
engaged  in  mining  or  even  prospecting  for  mines  are  allowed  to  cut 
and  consume  the  timber  on  the  public  lands  free  of  cost  and  with  only 
such  restrictions  as  may  be  made  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior. 
These  restrictions  are  not  close  or  narrow  in  character,  and  are  easily 
evaded  if  not  absolutely  ignored,  and  so  are  to  a  great  extent  prac- 
tically inoperative.  The  scanty  appropriations  of  Congress  do  not 
allow  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior  to  retain  a  sufficient  number  of 
inspectors  to  watch  the  immense  extent  of  territory  occupied  by  the 
forests  and  take  notice  of  the  depredations  which  may  be  made  upon 
them,  and  even  Avhen  depredations  are  occasionally  discovered  it  is 
very  difficult  to  secure  a  conviction  and  inflict  the  penalty  prescribed 
for  the  offense. 

To  show  the  extent  of  these  depredations  and  the  scale  on  which  the 
forests  are  consumed,  may  be  instanced  the  case  of  one  mining  company 
in  Dakota  against  which  the  Government  has  brought  suit  for  the  sum 
of  $088,000,  this  being  the  alleged  value  of  the  trees  cut  less  than  8 
inches  in  diameter,  which  restriction  had  been  placed  upon  the  permit 
to  cut.  What  must  have  been  the  number  and  value  of  the  larger  trees 
cut  and  consumed  by  this  comx^any?  The  operations  of  the  Anaconda 
Com])any  are  carried  on  upon  so  large  a  scale  that  it  is  said  they  refuse 
to  make  a  contract  for  less  than  40,000  cords  of  wood  in  any  single 
case,  and  their  contracts  range  from  that  amount  to  200,000  cords, 
while  nearly  1,000,000  cords  are  constantly  kept  on  hand.  The  company 
held  last  year  a  permit  from  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior  to  cut  from 
four  sections  of  public  land  within  twelve  months  14,000,000  feet  of 
timber.  The  great  Com  stock  Lode  of  Nevada  is,  if  possible,  a  greater 
anaconda,  whole  mountains  of  forest  having  gone  into  its  capacious 


8  ARBOK   DAY ITS    HISTORY    AND    OBSERVANCE. 

maw,  the  growth  of  two  or  three  centuries  having  been  swept  away  in 
a  few  years. 

Figures  are  iini)otent  to  give  one  a  full  apprehension  of  the  work  of 
forest  destruction  that  is  wrought  by  these  and.  other  mining  compa- 
nies and  the  lumbering  establishments  which  help  them  to  their  sup- 
plies. One  needs  to  see  with  his  own  eyes  the  work  as  it  is  going  on 
and  the  track  of  desolation  which  it  leaves,  to  have  an  adequate  notion 
of  the  destruction  thus  accomplished.  One  company,  miscalled  a  devel- 
opment company,  which  is  one  of  the  agencies  through  which  the  Ana- 
conda secures  its  supplies,  has  a  daily  capacity  of  120,000  feet  of 
timber. 

It  is  to  be  considered  also  that  not  only  the  consumption  of  the 
forests  incidental  to  mining  operations  but  that  resulting  from  ordi- 
nary lumbering  is  marked  by  great  wastefulness.  We  throw  away 
often  more  material  than  we  use.  A  great  i)ortion  of  the  substance  of 
the  trees  cut  in  the  forests  is  left  there  to  decay  or  to  be  consumed  by 
the  flames.  It  is  estimated  that  on  the  average  not  more  than  three- 
eighths  of  what  we  cut  in  the  forests  is  utilized,  five-eighths  of  the  mate- 
rial being  wasted.  In  the  great  redwood  forests  of  the  Pacific  Coast 
such  is  the  wasteful  method  of  operation,  it  is  said,  that  in  procuring  a 
railroad  tie  worth  35  cents,  $1.87  worth  of  the  substance  of  the  tree  is 
wasted.  In  Europe  it  is  estimated  that  seven -eighths  of  the  forest 
material  is  made  use  of  and  the  waste  is  only  one-eighth. 

A  conspicuous  case  of  wastefulness  is  worth  noting  in  this  connection, 
not  only  as  an  instance  of  wastefulness,  but  for  the  great  and  direct  dam- 
age resulting  from  it.  To  meet  the  demands  of  a  great  mining  company 
on  one  of  the  Sierra  Nevada  ranges  a  band  of  men,  numbering  thousands 
in  all,  were  sent  with  their  axes  into  a  forest  district  in  that  vicinity.  It 
was  an  extensive  region  and  the  forest  i^resented  a  stand  of  trees 
not  excelled,  perhaps,  in  quality  in  all  the  country.  Every  condition  of 
climate  and  soil  had  been  favorable  for  their  growth.  They  stood  thick 
and  stalwart. 

As  the  quickest  and  easiest  way  of  getting  out  the  largest  trees, 
which  were  the  ones  wanted  for  the  miners'  use,  the  forest  was  cut 
clean  and  leveled  with  the  ground.  Then,  the  timber  having  been 
removed,  the  remaining  trees,  spread  over  miles  and  miles  of  the 
mountain  side,  were  given  to  the  flames.  The  fire  not  only  consumed 
the  trees,  but  burned  up  the  soil  beneath  them — the  rich  leaf  mold, 
which  was  the  accumulation  of  centuries  of  tree  growth.  The  very 
rocks  beneath  it  were  so  heated  by  the  mighty  mass  of  burning  fuel 
that,  in  many  places,  they  crumbled  to  gravel.  When  the  rains  came 
and  the  snows  melted  rapidly  in  springtime — having  no  sheltering 
foliage  of  the  trees  to  protect  them  from  the  rays  of  the  sun — the  ashes 
of  the  burned  trees,  and  what  was  left  of  the  soil,  together  with  the 
rocky  gravel,  were  swept  down  the  mountain  side  with  torrent  swift- 
ness and  force,  overflowing  the  banks  of  the  water  courses,  tearing 


ARBOR    DAY ITS    HISTORY   AND    OBSERVANCE.  >) 

them  from  their  places,  aud  pouring  out  the  debris  of  disintegrated 
rock  upon  the  fertile  meadows  below  to  the  depth  of  many  feet. 

The  settlers  in  the  peaceful  valleys  at  the  foot  of  the  mountains,  to 
whom  the  dense  forests  had  sent  from  their  saturated  spongy  soil  and 
the  slowly  melting  snows  under  their  protecting  shade  a  steady  and 
sufficient  supply  of  water  to  enable  them  to  prosecute  their  farming 
operations  in  that  arid  region  with  an  assurance  of  success  nowhere 
surpassed,  now  found  themselves  at  the  mercy  of  torrents  in  the  spring 
season  and  droughts  in  the  summer  time,  and  were  forced  to  abandon 
their  no  longer  productive  farms.  Those  green  mountain  slopes  which 
it  had  taken  centuries  of  growth  to  prepare  as  the  guarantee  of  fertil- 
ity to  the  fields  below  are  gone.  i!^aked  rocks  only  are  now  to  be  seen 
in  their  place.  It  will  take  centuries  to  clothe  them  again  with  trees, 
and  meanwhile  the  valleys  and  plains  below  will  remain  the  desert 
which  the  greed  and  recklessness  of  man  have  created  there. 

With  the  enormous  consumption  of  our  forests  now  going  on  and 
rapidly  increasing  and  the  consequent  diminution  of  our  forest  area, 
the  need  of  tree  planting  becomes  greater  with  every  passing  year,  and 
the  importance  of  Arbor  Day  constantly  increases.  Its  great  value,  as 
has  been  said,  is  not  so  much  in  the  number  of  trees  planted  on  Arbor 
Day  as  in  the  tree  sentiment  created  and  stimulated  by  the  Arbor  Day 
observances,  which  will  be  helpful  in  arresting  the  wasteful  destruction 
of  our  forests  aud  lead  on  in  due  time,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  to  all  private 
and  public  tree  planting  which  our  interests  demand. 


ORIGIN  AND  HISTORY  OF  ARBOR  DAY. 

The  first  to  call  attention  in  this  country,  in  an 
impressive  way,  to  the  value  and  absolute  need  of 
trees — their  value  not  merely  on  account  of  their 
beauty  or  their  adaptation  for  purposes  of  orna- 
mental planting  and  mechanical  utility,  but  for 
their  connection  as  forests  with  climatic  influ- 
ences, with  the  flow  of  streams,  and  their  conse- 
quent connection  with  the  large  interests  of 
agriculture  and  commerce,  in  short,  with  the 
general  welfare  of  all  classes  of  people — was 
that  eminent  scholar  and  wise  observer,  Mr. 
George  P.  Marsh,  for  many  years  our  worthy  representative  at  the 
courts  of  Italy  and  Turkey.  His  residence  in  those  older  countries  was 
calculated  to  draw  his  attention  to  the  subject  as  it  would  not  have 
been  drawn  had  he  always  lived  in  his  native  land.  ^ 

Ours  was  a  remarkably  well- wooded  country.  From  Maine  to  the 
Gulf  and  from  the  Atlantic  coast  to  the  Alleghanies  stretched  an 
almost  continuous  forest,  which  at  the  beginning  of  white  settlements 


10  ARBOR   DAY ITS    HISTORY    AND    OBSERVANCE. 

here  and  long  afterwards  was  an  impediment  to  agricultural  develop- 
ment. The  pioneer  was  obliged  to  clear  a  space  among  the  trees  to 
make  room  in  which  to  cultivate  his  crops,  and  it  is  a  significant  sign 
of  that  early  condition  of  things  that  the  coat  of- arms  of  one  of  our 
States  bears  the  emblem  of  a  sturdy  yeoman  with  uplifted  ax.  Under 
such  circumstances^  it  is  no  wonder  that  the  people  of  this  country  in 
former  time  had  no  very  favorable  estimate  of  trees  and  little  api)recia- 
tion  of  their  value,  except  for  fuel  and  the  supply  of  timber  for  house 
building  and  certain  other  uses,  or  that  they  were  Avilling  that  their 
consumption  by  the  ax  should  be  aided  and  accelerated  by  forest  fires. 
Comparatively  few  persons  until  a  recent  period  realized  the  serious 
inroads  which,  with  a  rapidly  increasing  population,  had  been  made 
upon  our  forest  resources  or  apprehended  the  dangers  which  were 
threatening  us  in  the  future  as  the  consequences  thereof. 

In  Europe  Mt*.  Marsh  found  the  Governments  of  Italy  and  Germany,  as 
well  as  those  of  other  countries,  making  active  endeavors  and  at  great 
expense  to  rehabilitate  their  forests  which  had  been  depleted  centuries 
before,  to  guard  them  from  depredation  and,  instead  of  leaving  them  to 
be  consumed  at  the  bidding  of  personal  greed  or  recklessness,  cherish- 
ing them  as  among  their  most  precious  possessions.  He  found  the 
forests  regarded  as  the  most  valuable  crop  which  the  ground  can  pro- 
duce, and  every  efibrt  made  to  stimulate  their  growth  to  the  utmost.  He 
found  schools,  of  a  grade  corresponding  to  our  colleges,  established  for 
the  special  purpose  of  training  men  for  the  successful  planting  and  cul- 
tivation of  forests.  He  found  the  growth  of  trees  in  masses  and  their 
maintenance  reduced  to  a  science  and  the  management  of  the  wood- 
lands constituting  one  of  the  most  important  departments  of  state. 

Such  discoveries  were  well  calculated  to  fix  his  attention  upon  the 
very  different  condition  of  the  forests  in  his  own  country,  and  to  con- 
vince him  that  the  reckless  destruction  of  them  then  going  on  here,  if 
not  checked,  would  bring  upon  this  land  the  same  calamities  which  had 
befallen  countries  of  the  Old  World  in  past  centuries,  and  from  which 
only  the  most  enlightened  nations  of  Europe  are  now  recovering  through 
the  arduous  eflbrts  of  many  decades,  and  at  great  pecuniary  cost.  The 
result  of  Mr.  Marsh's  observations  was  the  publication  of  a  volume 
entitled  "The  Earth  and  Man,"  and  that  admirable  chapter  in  it  on  '^The 
woods,"  to  which,  more  than  to  any  other  source  i)erhaps,  we  are  indebted 
for  the  awakening  of  attention  here  to  our  destructive  treatment  of  the 
forests,  and  the  necessity  of  adopting  a  different  course  if  we  would 
avert  most  serious  consequences,  threatening  more  than  anything  else, 
possibly,  our  material  welfare. 

Other  thoughtful  and  observing  men  at  home  became  aware  from 
time  to  time  that  we  were  wasting  our  tree  heritage,  and  in  one  way  or 
another  they  were  urging  the  necessity  of  caution  and  economy  in  the 
treatment  of  the  forests.  It  is  remarkable,  indeed,  that  as  early  as  the 
colonial  period  some  of  our  States — New  Hampshire  and  New  York,  for 


ARBOR   DAY ITS    HISTORY   AND   OBSERVANCE.  11 

example — became  somewhat  alarmed  by  the  inroads  which  were  even 
theu  being'  made  upon  their  forests,  and  made  enactments  for  their  pro- 
tection. This  action  was  exceptional,  however,  and  little  was  done  to 
draw  attention  to  the  rapid  and  dangerous  depletion  of  our  forests  and 
awaken  public  sentiment  on  the  subject  until  within  the  comparatively 
recent  period  of  which  we  have  just  spoken. 

For  the  purpose  of  securing  a  supply  of  timber  for  naval  construction 
the  Government,  at  the  beginning  of  the  present  century,  purchased 
certain  tracts  of  live-oak  timber,  and  about  twenty-five  years  later,  by 
an  act  of  Congress,  the  President  was  authorized  to  take  measures  for 
their  preservation.  About  the  same  time  the  Massachusetts  Society 
for  Promoting  Agriculture  oifered  prizes  for  forest  planting,  and  thirty 
years  later  the  State  ordered  a  survey  of  her  timber  lands.  Thirty 
years  later  still,  acts  began  to  be~passed  for  the  encouragement  of  tim- 
ber planting,  chiefly  in  the  treeless  Western  States.  The  well-known 
timber- culture  act  was  one  of  these.  It  made  a  free  gift  of  the  public 
lands  to  the  successful  planter  of  forest  trees  on  one-fourth  of  his  entry. 

About  twenty  years  ago  the  subject  of  forest  destruction  and  its 
detrimental  results  came  before  the  American  Association  for  the 
Advancement  of  Science  for  consideration,  and  as  the  result  of  its  dis- 
cussions the  association  memorialized  Congress,  asking  that  measures 
be  taken  for  the  protection  of  the  public  timber  lands.  In  consequence 
of  this,  a  committee  of  the  House  of  Representatives  was  appointed  for 
the  purpose  of  considering  the  establishment  of  a  forestry  department 
of  the  Government,  and  two  years  later  the  Commissioner  of  Agricul- 
ture was  authorized  to  appoint  a  forest  commissioner,  which  was  the 
foundation  of  the  present  Forestry  Division  in  the  Department  of  Agri- 
culture. The  commissioner,  the  late  Dr.  F.  B.  Hough,  made  protracted 
inquiries  into  the  condition  of  the  forests  in  this  country  and  in  Europe, 
and  published  a  voluminous  report  on  the  subject,  which  is  altogether 
the  most  complete  and  valuable  publication  on  forestry  which  has 
appeared  in  this  country. 

It  was  at  about  this  time,  or  a  few  years  earlier,  that  a  practical 
movement  was  inaugurated  by  the  present  Secretary  of  Agriculture, 
the  Hon.  J.  Sterling  Morton,  which  has  done  more  for  the  protection  of 
our  forests  and  the  encouragement  of  tree  planting  than  all  our  legis- 
lation. This  was  the  establishment  of  Arbor  Day,  or  tree-planting  day. 
It  w^as  the  happy  thought  of  this  pioneer  settler  on  the  treeless  plains  of 
Nebraska,  who  knew  and  felt  the  value  of  trees  about  the  home,  as  well 
as  their  importance  for  the  many  uses  of  life,  to  enlist  his  neighbors 
and  his  fellow  settlers  throughout  the  State,  by  a  common  impulse, 
growing  out  of  common  wants  and  feelings,  in  the  work  of  tree  plan  ting- 
on  one  and  the  same  given  day.  The  wise  suggestion  was  brought  before 
the  State  board  of  agriculture  in  the  form  of  a  resolution  designating  a 
certain  day  for  the  inauguration  of  the  tree-planting  movement.  The 
resolution  was  readily  adopted.     The  appeal  to  the  popular  feeling  and 


12  ARBOR    DAY ITS    HISTORY    AND    OBSERVANCE. 

the  popular  ueed  was  heartily  responded  to,  and  it  was  reported  that 
many  millions  of  trees  were  planted  that  year  in  Nebraska.  This 
successful  inauguration  of  Arbor  Day  led  to  its  institution  the  same 
year  by  the  horticultural  society  in  Iowa,  to  be  followed  quickly  by  its 
adoption  in  Minnesota,  Ohio,  and  other  Western  States. 

A  few  years  later  Arbor  Day  assumed  a  new  character  and  acquired 
a  wider  interest  with  the  people  as  it  became  connected  in  its  observ- 
ance with  the  public  schools.  This  it  did  for  the  first  time  during  the 
sessions  of  a  national  forestry  convention  at  Cincinnati  in  the  year 
1882.  The  sessions  of  the  convention  were  continued  through  five  days, 
on  one  of  which  there  was  a  public  parade,  civic  and  military,  with  a 
march  to  Eden  Park,  where  groves  were  planted  and  single  trees  in 
memory  of  distinguished  men — poets,  orators,  governors,  and  others. 
The  school  children  and  their  teachers  formed  a  conspicuous  feature  of 
the  pageant  and  the  planting  of  the  trees  was  done  principally  by  them. 
Tree  planting  thus  became  a  festivity,  combining  at  once  pleasure  and 
utility.  That  Cincinnati  observance  was  an  object  lesson  for  the  coun- 
try, as  the  report  of  it  was  published  far  and  wide. 

.  A  national  forestry  association  was  formed  at  the  time  of  the  Cincin- 
nati convention,  and  at  its  meeting  in  St.  Paul  the  following  year  a 
resolution  was  adopted  favoring  the  observance  of  Arbor  Day  by  the 
schools  of  the  country.  A  standing  committee  on  Arbor  Day  was  also 
appointed,  and  such  a  committee  has  been  appointed  at  nearly  every 
annual  meeting  of  the  association.  Wherever  since  then  Arbor  Day 
has  been  adopted  its  observance  has  been  connected  with  the  schools, 
as  it  has  been  also  in  the  States  where  it  had  been  established  before. 
Thus  it  has  become  a  school  festival,  as  it  has  also  become  a  national 
one.  It  was  only  what  might  have  been  expected,  therefore,  that  at 
the  meeting  of  the  National  Education  Association,  at  Saratoga,  in 
July,  1892,  when  the  subject  had  been  brought  to  its  attention  by  the 
Hon.  B.  G.  Northrop,  the  committee  to  whom  it  was  referred  should 
report  as  follows : 

Your  committee  reports  with  pleasure  tliat  Arbor  Day  is  now  observed  in  accord- 
ance with  legislative  act,  or  annual  public  proclamation,  in  forty  States  and  Terri- 
tories. We  recommend  that  the  observance  be  universal,  that  village  and  district 
improvement  associations  be  formed,  that  memorial  trees  be  planted,  and  that  appro- 
priate means  be  employed  to  inspire  in  pupils  and  parents  the  love  of  beauty  and  a 
desire  for  home  and  landscape  adornment. 

Arbor  Day  is  educational  in  the  best  and  largest  sense.  By  engag- 
ing the  pupils  of  the  schools  in  the  study  of  trees,  not  merely  from 
books  but  by  actual  observation  and  handling  of  them  in  their  living 
state,  the  observing  faculties  of  the  pupils  are  appealed  to  and  culti- 
vated, and  their  minds  are  easily  led  on  from  the  study  of  trees  to  that 
of  shrubs  and  flowering  xilants  and  all  natural  objects.  There  can  be 
no  better  training  than  this.  It  forms  one  of  the  best  equipments  for 
success  in  life  in  whatever  employments  one  may  be  engaged,  and  is  a 


ARBOR    DAY ITS    HISTORY   AND    OBSERVANCE.  13 

never-failing  source  of  enjoyment.  iSTo  studies  are  more  wholesome 
than  those  of  natural  objects.  They  are  suggestive  of  only  what  is  good. 
They  cultivate  the  sense  and  love  of  the  beautiful  everywhere.  They 
meliorate  the  nature  Avithin  us  and  lit  us  to  be  associates  with  one 
another,  and  to  become  worthy  members  of  society  wherever  we  may  be. 

And  so  Arbor  Day  and  its  public  observance,  taken  with  the  studies 
connected  with  it,  has  led  on  naturally  to  the  formation  of  town  and 
village  improvement  societies  and  various  other  associations  and  organ- 
izations for  the  promotion,  in  one  way  and  another,  of  the  public  wel- 
fare. The  spirit  of  Arbor  Day  is  benevolent.  Its  aim  is  the  public 
good  in  some  form,  and  it  has  a  wide  outlook.  There  is  nothing  narrow 
or  selfish  about  it.  If  it  plants  trees,  it  is  not  for  the  benefit  of  any 
individual  alone,  but  for  all  who  may  see  them  and  have  the  benefit  of 
them,  whether  soon  or  centuries  hence.  It  plants  for  those  who  are  to 
come,  as  well  as  for  those  now  living. 

Arbor  Day  is  the  one  festival  or  celebration  which,  instead  of  look- 
ing backward  and  glorifying  the  heroes  and  achievements  of  the  past 
or  recounting  the  praises  of  present  enterprises  or  actors,  looks  forward 
and  seeks  to  make  a  better  environment  and  a  better  inheritance  for 
the  coming  generations.  Its  spirit  is  hopeful.  Its  motto  is  progress. 
It  is  ever  reaching  out  for  new  acquisitions  of  knowledge,  and  seeking 
to  impart  new  and  more  widespread  benefits. 

It  is  not  a  matter  for  wonder,  therefore,  that  an  institution  with 
such  a  spirit  and  such  possibilities,  with  so  much  to  commend  it  to  the 
attention  of  i)ersons  of  intelligence  and  generous  feeling,  and  especially 
to  the  ardent  natures  of  the  young,  should  have  a  speedy  and  wide 
acceptance.  And  so,  by  its  own  manifest  merit  and  without  any  prop- 
agandism  on  its  behalf,  it  has  been  adopted  by  nearly  every  State  and 
Territory  of  the  Union;  and  limited  by  no  national  boundaries,  it  has 
even  crossed  the  Atlantic  on  the  one  hand,  and  become  established  in 
Great  Britain,  France,  and  northern  and  southern  Africa,  and  on  the 
other,  within  the  present  year,  has  crossed  the  Pacific  and  been  wel- 
comed in  the  Hawaiian  Islands  and  in  Japan. 

The  beneficent  results  of  an  institution  of  this  character,  and  already 
almost  world-wide  in  its  reach,  no  one  can  measure.  Year  by  year  it 
will  bring  millions  of  people,  young  and  old,  into  a  closer  and  more 
intimate  contact  with  nature,  unveiling  to  them  its  precious  secrets, 
opening  to  them  stores  of  valuable  knowledge,  and  cultivating  in  them 
the  best  feelings.  In  our  own  country  it  promises  to  do  more  than 
anything  else  to  convert  us  from  a  nation  of  wanton  destroyers  of  our 
unparalleled  heritage  of  trees  to  one  of  tree  planters  and  protectors. 
Instead  of  looking  upon  the  trees  with  indifference,  or  even  with  a  hos- 
tile feeling,  as  to  a  great  extent  we  have  done,  or  regarding  them  chiefly 
as  material  for  use  in  the  constructive  arts  or  to  be  consumed  as  fuel, 
we  shall  become  tree  lovers.  A  tree  sentiment  .will  be  created  and 
established  which  will  lead  us  to  recognize  and  cherish  the  trees  as 


14  ARBOR    DAY ITS    HISTORY   AND    OBSERVANCE. 

friends,  and  while  we  shall  freely  make  use  of  them  in  the  various  arts 
and  industries  of  life,  we  shall  be  mindful  of  their  value  in  other  respects 
and  find  constant  delight  in  their  companionship. 

To  show  the  natural  result  of  the  establishment  of  Arbor  Day  and 
how  it  increases  its  hold  upon  the  regard  of  a  i)eople  from  year  to  year 
as  it  becomes  more  and  more  familiar  to  them  and  its  obvious  lessons 
are  learned  by  them,  it  is  enough  to  adduce  the  history  of  Nebraska, 
in  which  the  day  originated — since  the  time  it  began  to  be  celebrated 
there.  Arbor  Day  originated  in  this  manner :  At  an  annual  meeting  of 
the  Nebraska  State  board  of  agriculture  held  in  the  city  of  Lincoln, 
January  4,  1872,  J.  Sterling  Morton,  of  Nebraska  City,  introduced  the 
following  resolution,  which  was  unanimously  adojjted  after  some  little 
debate  as  to  the  name,  some  of  those  present  contending  for  the  term 
^'  Sylvan ''  instead  of  "Arbor : " 

Ixesolved,  That  Wednesday,  the  10th  day  of  April,  1872,  be,  and  the  same  is  hereby, 
especially  set  apart  and  consecrated  for  tree  planting  in  the  State  of  Nebraska,  and 
the  State  board  of  agriculture  hereby  name  it  Arbor  Day ;  and  to  urge  upon  the  peo- 
ple of  the  State  the  vital  importance  of  tree  planting,  hereby  offer  a  special  premium 
of  one  hundred  dollars  to  the  agricultural  society  of  that  county  in  Nebraska  which 
shall,  upon  that  day,  plant  properly  the  largest  number  of  trees;  and  a  farm  library 
of  twenty-five  dollars'  worth  of  books  to  that  person  who,  on  that  day,  shall  plant 
properly,  in  Nebraska,  the  greatest  number  of  trees. 

The  result  was  that  over  a  million  trees  were  planted  in  Nebraska  on 
that  first  Arbor  Day. 

Three  years  later  the  day  had  attained  such  favor  with  the  people 
that  the  governor,  by  public  proclamation,  set  apart  the  third  Wednes- 
day of  April  as  Arbor  Day,  and  recommended  that  the  people  observe 
it  as  a  day  of  tree  planting.  Annually  thereafter  other  governors  of 
the  State  followed  this  example,  until  at  the  session  of  the  legislature 
in  1885  an  act  was  passed  designating  the  22d  day  of  April,  the  birth- 
day of  Mr.  Morton,  as  the  date  of  Arbor  Day,  and  making  it  one  of  the 
legal  holidays  of  the  State. 

As  further  showing  the  deep  lodgment  which  Arbor  Day  has  gained 
in  the  regard  of  the  people  of  Nebraska,  and  the  interest  with  which 
it  is  cherished  by  them,  it  is  significant  to  notice  that  since  the  inaugu- 
ration of  Arbor  Day  a  provision  has  been  embodied  in  the  constitution 
of  the  State  which  recites,  "That  the  increased  value  of  lands  by 
reason  of  live  fences,  fruit,  and  forest  trees  grown  and  cultivated 
thereon  shall  not  be  taken  into  account  in  the  assessment  thereof." 

The  following  statutory  enactments  are  now  in  existence  also : 

Sec.  3.  That  the  corporate  authorities  of  cities  and  villages  of  the  State  of 
Nebraska  shall  cause  shade  trees  to  be  planted  along  the  streets  thereof. 

Sec.  4.  For  the  above  purpose  a  tax  of  not  less  than  one  dollar  uor  more  than  five 
dollars,  in  addition  to  all  other  taxes,  shall  be  levied  ui)on  each  lot  adjacent  to  which 
the  trees  are  to  be  planted  as  aforesaid,  and  collected  as  other  taxes. 

Sec.  5.  Trees  shall  be  annually  planted,  when  practicable,  on  each  side  of  one- 
fourth  of  the  streets  in  each  city  and  village  in  the  State  of  Nebraska,  until  all  shall 
have  shade  trees  along  them  not  more  than  twenty  feet  apart. 


ARBOR   DAY — ITS    HISTORY    AND    OBSERVANCE.  15 

Sec.  6.  The  corporate  authorities  aforesaid  shall  provide  by  ordinance  the  distance 
from  the  side  of  the  street  that  trees  shall  be  planted,  and  the  size  thereof. 

Sec.  7.  I'ronded,  The  owner  of  any  lot  or  lots  may  plant  trees  adjacent  thereto 
where  ordered  as  above,  in  the  manner  and  of  the  size  prescribed,  and  on  making 
proof  thereof  by  affidavit  to  the  collector,  said  affidavit  shall  exempt  said  owner 
from  the  payment  of  the  aforesaid  tax. 

Sec.  8.  Any  person  who  shall  materially  injure  or  shall  destroy  the  shade  tree  or 
trees  of  another,  or  permit  his  animals  to  destroy  them,  shall  be  liable  to  a  fine  of 
not  less  than  five  dollars,  nor  more  than  fifty  dollars  for  each  tree  thus  injured  or 
destroyed,  which  fine  shall  be  collected  on  complaint  of  any  person  or  persons  before 
any  court  of  i>roper  jurisdiction.  One-half  of  all  fines  thus  collected  shall  be  paid 
to  the  owner  of  the  trees  injured  or  destroyed;  the  other  half  shall  be  paid  into  the 
school  fund. 

Sec.  9.  That  this  act  shall  not  apply  to  any  person  that  is  occupant  of  any  busi- 
ness lot  without  his  consent. 

Sec.  10.  That  when  any  person  shall  plant  and  properly  cultivate  for  the  term  of 
five  years,  six  rows  of  trees,  eight  feet~apart,  and  the  trees  four  feet  apart  in  the 
row  along  either  the  north  section  or  the  half  section  line,  running  east  and  west, 
said  rows  to  be  not  nearer  to  the  said  north  section  or  half  section  line  than  four  feet 
or  to  the  south  line  of  any  road  which  may  be  laid  out  on  said  north  section  or  half 
section  line;  or  when  any  person  shall  fill  out  to  the  standard  above  prescribed,  and 
keep  the  same  in  a  proper  state  of  cultivation  for  the  time  above  stated,  any  rows 
of  trees  that  may  have  previously  been  planted  along  said  north  section  or  half  sec- 
tion line,  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  county  commissioners  to  pay  such  person,  by 
warrant  on  the  county  treasurer,  a  sum  of  money,  amounting  to  three  dollars  aud 
thirty-three  cents  per  acre,  for  each  acre  so  planted  and  cultivated  annually,  so  long 
as  the  same  is  planted  and  kept  growing  and  in  a  proper  state  of  cultivation, 
for  a  period  not  to  exceed  the  space  of  five  years,  and  to  an  extent  not  to  exceed 
three  acres  of  land. 

Sec.  11.  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  assessor  of  each  precinct  to  make  proper  exam- 
ination and  report  to  the  county  commissioners,  at  the  time  of  his  annual  report,  the 
condition  of  all  timber  so  planted  and  cultivated  under  the  provisions  of  this  act. 

How  firmly  the  tree-planting  idea  has  taken  hold  of  the  people  of 
Nebraska  is  farther  shown  by  a  joint  resolution  adopted  by  the  last 
legislature,  and  approved  April  4,  1895 : 

Whereas  the  State  of  Nebraska  has  heretofore,  in  a  popular  sense,  been  desig- 
nated by  names  not  in  harmony  with  its  history,  industry,  or  ambition;  and 

Whereas  the  State  of  Nebraska  is  preeminently  a  tree-planting  State ;  and 

Whereas  numerous  worthy  and  honorable  State  organizations  have,  by  resolu- 
tion, designated  Nebraska  as  the  "Tree  Planter's  State;"    Therefore,  be  it 

Resolved  by  the  legislature  of  the  State  of  Nebraska,  That  Nebraska  shall  hereafter, 
in  a  popular  sense,  be  known  and  referred  to  as  the  ''Tree  Planter's  State." 

To  this  may  be  added,  not  inappropriately,  another  joint  resolution 
adopted  at  the  same  session,  which  is  an  outgrowth  of  the  same  senti- 
ment as  that  which  led  to  the  adoption  of  the  popular  name,  ^'  Tree 
Planter's  State." 

Whereas,  the  adoption  of  a  State  floral  emblem  by  the  authority  of  the  legis- 
lature would  foster  a  feeling  of  pride  in  our  State  aud  stimulate  an  interest  in  the 
history  and  traditions  of  the  Commonwealth:  Therefore,  be  it 

Resolved,  That,  the  Senate  concurring,  we,  the  legislature  of  Nebraska,  hereby 
declare  the  flower  commonly  known  as  the  ''Golden  Rod"  (SoUdago  serotina)  to  be 
the  floral  emblem  of  the  State. 

Approved  April  4,  A.  D.  1895. 


16  ARBOR    DAY ITS    HISTORY   AND    OBSERVANCE. 

The  Hon.  Henry  R.  Corbett,  State  superintendent  of  public  instruc- 
tion, says: 

The  effect  of  Arbor  Day  it  will  be  impossible  to  estimate  in  figures  or  statistics.  It 
has  resulted  in  stimulating  a  pride  in  the  resources  of  Nebraska  and  a  sentiment  in 
favor  of  extending  and  preserving  our  forest  areas.  It  is  observed  and  talked  about 
in  every  school  room,  and  through  its  influence  millions  of  trees  have  been  planted 
and  cared  for  annually  throughout  the  State. 

To  these  testimonies  may  be  added  the  following  recent  statement  of 
the  Hon.  R.  W,  Furnas,  who,  as  governor  of  Nebraska,  issued  the  first 
Arbor  Day  proclamation  and  who  has  watched  with  interest  the  prog- 
ress and  results  of  the  day's  observance  ever  since: 

No  observance  ever  sprang  into  existence  so  rapidly,  favorably,  permanently,  and 
now  so  near  universally  throughout  the  whole  civilized  world  as  that  of  "Arbor  Day." 
It  originated  less  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  since,  and  has  been  adopted,  in  some 
form  or  other,  in  all  the  States  and  Territories  of  this  Union,  and  in  nearly  all  for- 
eign civilized  countries,  increasing  in  popularity  wherever  known. 

The  words  *  'Arbor  Day  "  are  attractive  to  the  eye — to  read  in  print  and  to  meditate ; 
they  are  rythmical  to  utter  and  to  the  ear.  The  word  ''Arbor"  carries  with  it  most 
pleasant  remembrances  to  the  young  and  prouise  to  the  older — "a  bower,  a  seat 
shaded  by  trees."  What  more  enticing  and  enchanting  to  refined  [esthetic  taste 
and  mind  than  such  retreat,  such  rest,  shelter,  protection?  This  characteristic  alone 
makes  it  worthy  of  a  permanent  place  in  our  civilization. 

Its  economic  worth,  because  of  its  usefulness  among  all  classes  of  people,  com- 
mends it  with  equal  force. 

Its  origin  was  prompted  by  a  desire  to  ward  oW  the  rigorous  winds  of  northwestern 
prairies,  and  to  supply  fuel  as  well.  Its  accomplishments  in  this  respect  are  already 
beyond  pecuniary  computation.  Through  the  instrumentality  of  its  observance  in 
Nebraska  many  thousands  of  acres  hitherto  bleak,  worthless,  undesirable  prairie 
lands  have  been  clad  with  millions  of  trees,  thus  converting  them  into  valued  forest 
groves,  fruitful  orchards,  prosperous  homes,  with  happy  people  as  occupants.  A 
great  commonwealth  has  been  built  on  the  foundation  ''Arbor  Day,"  and  within  the 
recollection  of  those  who  i)articipated  in  "laying  the  corner  stone." 

The  influence  of  tree  planting  on  the  western  prairies,  influencing  climate  con- 
ditions for  good,  is  found  to  be  next  to  incalculable — retaining  moisture  and  breaking 
the  force  of  sweeping  winds.  Growing  out  of  this  climatic  revolution  is  the  greater 
result  of  increased  crop  products. 

Records  show  the  number  of  trees  planted  in  Nebraska  since  the  inauguration  of 
"Arbor  Day"  running  into  billions.  Instances  are  also  of  record,  where  the  earlier 
planted  and  more  rapid  growing  varieties  of  trees  which  were  used  have  been 
already  converted  into  sawed  lumber,  of  which  residences  and  other  buildings  have 
been  constructed. 

It  has  been  deemed  proper  to  present  in  this  extended  manner  an 
account  of  the  inauguration,  establishment,  and  progress  of  the  Arbor 
Day  institution  in  Nebraska  as  an  illustration  not  only  of  what  the 
observance  of  the  day  has  effected  in  a  particular  State,  but  of  what  it 
is  effecting  in  many  other  States  and  may  be  expected  to  do  wherever 
it  is  established. 

To  show  that  similar  results  have  followed  the  introduction  of  Arbor 
Day  in  other  States,  it  will  be  enough  to  cite  briefly  the  testimony  of  a 
few  superintendents  of  public  instruction,  persons  who  possess  the  best 
means  of  information  upon  the  subject. 


ARBOR    DAY ITS    HISTORY   AND    OBSERVANCE.  17 

Superintendent  Sabin,  of  Iowa,  well  known  for  the  great  interest  he 
has  taken  in  the  proper  observance  of  Arbor  Day,  says : 

Arbor  Day  has  been  regularly  observed  in  Iowa  since  it  was  instituted  in  1887.  It 
is  the  custom  of  this  department  to  issue  an  Arbor  Day  annual  for  free  distribution. 
Special  care  is  taken  that  one  reaches  every  school  in  the  State. 

Although  there  is  no  legal  requirement,  the  day  is  very  generally  observed  by  the 
schools,  and  in  many  cases  by  citizens.  It  is  proper  +o  say  here  that  our  school  law 
requires  every  board  of  directors  to  set  out  and  properly  care  for  at  least  twelve 
shade  trees  on  each  school  grounds  not  already  provided  with  suitable  shade. 

The  influence  of  such  an  observance  is  very  excellent,  although,  as  in  other  good 
work,  perseverance  is  necessary  to  success.  We  intend  to  continue  the  custom  from 
year  to  year. 

The  superintendent  of  public  instruction  in  Wyoming  says: 

The  day  is  observed  by  the  planting  of  trees  and  appropriate  exercises  in  each 
department  of  our  schools. 

A  great  degree  of  interest  is  manifested  by  the  children  and  peoph^  generally  and 
seems  to  be  increasing.  Pupils  look  forward  with  great  pleasure  to  the  planting  and 
naming  of  their  trees.  In  a  great  many  schools  each  child  contributes  toward  the 
buying  of  a  tree,  and  in  after  years  watches  its  growth  very  carefully. 

Particular  interest,  I  think,  is  shown  in  this  day  in  Wyoming  for  the  reason  that 
we  have  so  few  native  trees  and  it  requires  so  much  care  to  cultivate  them. 

E.  B.  Prettyraan,  secretary  of  the  Maryland  board  of  education,  says: 

The  day  is  observed  universally  by  the  public  schools  of  the  State.  Great  int  jrest 
is  manifested,  which  1  believe  to  be  increasing.  I  believe  the  effect  of  the  observ- 
ance of  Arbor  Day  is  very  beneficial  in  cultivating  a  love  for  trees  and  for  the 
adornment  not  only  of  school  lots  with  trees,  vines,  and  flowers,  but  that  this  culti- 
vation extends  to  the  families  and  homes  represented  in  the  schools. 

Hon.  J.  M.  Carlisle,  superintendent  of  public  instruction  in  Texas, 
says: 

Washington's  birthday,  February  22,  is  observed  in  this  State  as  Arbor  Day.  It  is 
observed  as  a  holiday,  and  is  devoted  to  the  planting  of  trees,  shrubs,  flowers,  and 
the  general  ornamentation  of  public  buildings  and  grounds.  The  patriotic  exercises 
appropriate  to  Washington's  birthday  blend  beautifully  with  the  observance  of 
Arbor  Day. 

The  efi^ect  of  the  observance  of  the  day  is  wholesome.  Interest  in  the  study  of 
trees,  shrubs,  and  flowers  is  stimulated,  appreciation  of  the  wonders  and  beauties 
of  nature  is  heightened,  and  the  sentiment  in  favor  of  both  physical  and  moral  clean- 
liness is  greatly  strengthened,  while  patriotic  feelings  are  aroused  and  the  people 
are  drawn  together  by  the  contemplation  of  so  many  great  themes  in  which  all  have 
a  common  interest. 

The  superintendent  of  public  instruction  in  North  Dakota  says: 

The  degree  of  interest  in  the  observance  of  the  day  is  increasing,  and  the  effect 
upon  pupils  of  the  schools  and  the  public  generally  is  gratifying  in  the  same  degree 
which  marks  the  increasing  observance  of  the  day. 

Hon.  A.  B.  Poland,  State  superintendent  of  public  instruction  in 
New  Jersey,  says : 

Ever  since  the  adoption  of  the  act  for  the  observance  of  Arbor  Day  (1884)  the 
observance  has  been  universal  throughout  the  State,  and,  in  general,  eminently  sat- 
isfactory. I  am  of  the  opinion  that,  after  eleven  years'  experience,  the  interest  taken 
in  the  observance  of  Arbor  Day  has  in  no  respect  diminished.  This  would  be  a 
remarkable  phenomenon  were  it  not  that  the  end  subserved  were  generally  recog- 
nized to  be  a  useful  one. 

10578 2 


18 


ARBOR    DAY ITS    HISTORY    AND    OBSERVANCE. 


I  am  of  the  opinion  also  that  the  participation  of  the  schools  and,  to  a  consider- 
able extent,  the  citizens  in  the  observance  of  Arbor  Day  has  resulted  in  a  moral  and 
aesthetic  improvement  that  may  be  clearly  discerned. 

New  York  was  late  in  adopting  Arbor  Day  by  legal  provision,  though 
the  day  had  been  more  or  less  observed  for  several  years;  but  no  State, 
since  the  enactment  of  the  ^'  act  to  encourage  arboriculture"  (1888),  has 
been  more  active  or  efficient  in  the  observance  of  Arbor  Day.  Hon. 
Charles  R.  Skinner,  State  superintendent  of  public  instruction,  speak- 
ing of  the  passage  of  the  act,  says : 

Without  doubt  one  of  the  effects  of  this  legislation  has  been  to  arouse  a  deeper 
interest  in  trees  and  flowers  among  pupils  and  people.  We  hear  more  in  these  days 
concerning  the  preservation  of  our  forests  than  before  the  enactment  of  the  law. 
Our  school  grounds  are  kept  in  better  condition  and  the  trees  about  our  school- 
houses  are  better  protected.  In  thousands  of  cases  trees  so  planted  on  Arbor  Day 
have  been  named  for  men  and  women  prominent  in  education  and  in  our  history 
generally. 

The  manuals  which  have  been  issued  by  the  department  of  public 
instruction  from  year  to  year,  and  the  larger  and  very  noteworthy  manual 
compiled  by  Mr.  Skinner  himself,  testify  abundantly  to  the  vigor  with 
which  the  Arbor-Day  propaganda  has  been  promoted  in  New  York. 
Those  manuals  have  been  freely  drawn  upon  in  the  preparation  of  the 
present  publication. 

The  number  of  trees  planted  in  New  York  on  Arbor  Day  is  officially 
stated  by  Mr.  Skinner  as  follows:  1889,  24,166;  1890,  27,130;  1891, 
25,786;  1892,20,622;  1893,15,973;  1894,16,624. 


STATES  AND  TERRITORIES  OBSERVING  ARBOR  DAY. 


states. 

Year  of 
first  observ- 
ance. 

Time  of  observance. 

1887 
1890-91 

Arizona 

First  Friday  after  1st  of  February. 

Arkansas .......... 

California 

1886 
1885 
1887 
1886 
1887 
1886 
1888 

1884 
1887 
1875 
1886 
1888-89 
1887 
1889 
1886 
1885 
1876 
1892 
1886 
1887 
1872 
1887 
1886 

Colorado      ..         ....     ...... 

Third  Friday  in  April. 

In  spring,  at  appointment  of  governor. 

January  8. 

First  Friday  in  December. 

Last  Monday  in  April. 

Date  fixed    by  governor   and    superintendent  of  public 

instruction. 
Date  fixed  by  superintendent  of  public  instruction. 
Do. 

Florida 

Georgia 

Illinois 

Indiana 

Iowa  

Kansas 

Option  of  governor,  usually  in  April. 
Do. 

Kentucky 

Option  of  parish  boards. 
Option  of  governor. 
Option  of  governor,  in  April. 
Last  Saturday  in  April. 
Option  of  governor. 
Do. 

I^aine 

Massachusetts                . .. 

Minnesota 

Mississippi 

Option  of  board  of  education. 

Missouri 

First  Friday  after  first  Tuesday  of  April. 
Third  Tuesclay  of  April. 
22d  of  April. 
Option  of  governor. 
Do. 

Montana 

Kevada 

New  Hampshire 

ARBOR    DAY ITS    HISTORY    AND    OBSERVANCE. 


19 


States  and  Territories  Observing  Arbor  Day — Continued. 


States. 

Year  of 
first  observ- 
ance. 

Time  of  observance. 

New  fJersey    .......... 

1884 
1890 
1889 
1893 
1884 
1882 

Option  of  governor,  in  April. 
Second  Friday  in  March. 
First  Friday  after  May  1. 

New  Mexico 

North  Carolina .. . 

N  orth  Dakota 

6th  of  May,  by  proclamation  of  governor. 
In  April,  by  proclamation  of  governor. 

Ohio 

Oklahoma        ..   .....     ...... 



1889 
1887 
1887 
Uncertain. 
1884 
1875 
1890 
1885 
1892 
1883 
1889 
1888 
1892 

Second  Friday  in  April. 
Option  of  governor. 
Do. 

Pennsylvania                      •   . 

Rhode  Island 

South  Carolina 

Variable. 

South  Dakota     

Option  of  governor. 

November,  at  designation  of  county  superintendents. 

22d  of  February. 

Option  of  governor. 

Texas               ...            ... 

"Vermont - -.. 

Virginia 

W^est  Virginia 

Fall  and  spring,  at  designation  of  superintendent  of  schools. 
Option  of  governor. 
JDo. 

"Washington  ................. 

Do. 

Only  the  following  three  States  or  Territories  fail  to  observe  Arbor 
Day:  Delaware,  Indian  Territory,  and  Utah.  In  Delaware  the  day  is 
observed  in  some  localities,  and  the  same  is  probably  true  in  Utah  and 
the  Indian  Territory. 


ARBOR  DAY  CELEBRATIONS. 

While  the  object  of  Arbor  Day,  as  originally 
instituted,  was  to  secure  the  planting  of  trees 
on  a  large  scale  and  for  economic  purposes,  in  a 
region  nearly  destitute  of  trees  and  where  the 
need  of  them  for  fuel  as  well  as  for  shelter  was 
strongly  felt,  now  that  its  observance  has  spread 
all  over  the  country  and  has  become  almost  uni- 
versally connected  with  the  schools,  nowhere  is  the 
day  welcomed  with  more  of  zest  and  enjoyment  than  in 
those  parts  of  the  country  Avhere  trees  are  most  abundant. 
The  value  of  Arbor  Day  observances  in  connection  with  our 
schools,  therefore,  is  not  to  be  measured  so  much  by  the  number  of 
trees  planted  at  a  given  time  as  by  the  tree  spirit  implanted  in  those 
engaged  in  the  observance,  by  the  knowledge  of  tree  life  incidentally 
gained,  and  the  feelings  and  principles  engendered  or  promoted  and 
their  after  influence  upon  life  and  character.  The  value  of  Arbor  Day 
is  not  so  much  in  its  present  enjoyments  for  a  day  as  in  what  it  does  by 
preparing  our  growing  youth  to  be  useful  and  happy  men  and  women 
when  they  reach  the  position  of  influence  and  responsibility,  when  the 
duties  of  public  and  social  life  and  the  molding  and  direction  of  social 
and  political  aff'airs  are  to  be  transferred  from  those  who  now  control 
them  and  are  to  be  assumed  by  themselves. 


20  ARBOR   DAY ITS    HISTORY    AND    OBSERVANCE. 

It  is  much  in  favor  of  the  day  and  its  appropriate  observance  that  it 
may  afford  such  opportunities  for  bringing  the  young  so  pleasantly  into 
contact  with  l^ature,  and  opening  their  minds  in  their  most  impressible 
time  to  her  healthy  and  happy  influences.  It  is  good  to  take  the  pupils 
out  of  the  schoolroom  for  a  day  into  the  open  air,  into  Nature's  school 
place.  And  it  would  be  a  good  thing  if  they  could  be  taken  into  the 
fields  and  groves,  under  the  judicious  guidance  of  their  teachers,  not 
only  once  a  year,  but  oftener.  An  occasional  half-holiday  thus  taken 
would  be  of  more  real  benefit,  more  instructive,  than  any  equal  portion 
of  time  spent  in  the  schoolroom.  It  would  be  taking  the  children  to 
the  original  fountains  of  knowledge,  where  they  would  gain  it  at  first 
and  not  at  second  hand.  Fresh  flowers  are  better  than  those  of  the 
herbarium.  It  would  give  scope  and  stimulus  to  their  observing  facul- 
ties, the  first  to  open  and  the  first  which  offer  themselves  to  be  trained 
for  proper  use,  on  whose  i)roper  use  also  the  success  and  happiness  of 
after  life  chiefly  depend.     As  Wordsworth  says: 

Nature  never  did  betray 
The  heart  that  loved  her;  'tis  her  privilejje, 
Through  all  the  years  of  this  our  life,  to  lead 
From  joy  to  joy ;  for  she  can  so  inform 
The  mind  that  is  within  us,  so  impress 
With  quietness  and  beauty,  and  so  feed 
With  lofty  thoughts,  that  neither  evil  tongues, 
Kash  judgments,  nor  the  sneers  of  selfish  men, 
Nor  greetings  where  no  kindness  is,  nor  all 
The  dreary  intercourse  of  daily  life 
Shall  e'er  prevail  against  us,  or  disturb 
Our  cheerful  faith  that  all  which  we  behold 
Is  full  of  blessing. 

It  had  been  a  thousand  times  better  for  some  if,  instead  of  moiling 
over  books  in  the  schoolroom,  they  had  been  allowed  to  spend  more  of 
their  younger  days  in  the  open  world,  the  school  of  I^ature,  to  be  com- 
panions of  the  birds,  listening  to  their  songs  and  learning  their  habits, 
strolling  along  the  brooks,  following  their  windings  through  wood  and 
meadow,  and  coming  home  laden  with  the  treasures  which  Nature  is  ever 
ready  to  bestow  ux>on  the  youngest  child  or  the  oldest  man  who  has  an 
eye  to  see  and  a  heart  to  feel  their  beauty. 

Happily,  the  methods  of  the  schoolroom  are  better  than  they  were, 
though  there  is  still  room  for  improvement.  Nature  studies  have  found 
some  place  in  them.  But  these  would  be  made  more  interesting  and 
more  effective  if  teacher  and  x)upils  together  were  oftener  to  get  face  to 
face  with  Nature  herself,  the  great  teacher. 

METHODS  OF  OBSERVING  ARBOR  DAY. 

The  observance  of  Arbor  Day  may  be  as  various  in  method  as  the 
tastes  and  inclinations  of  those  engaged  in  it.  Much  will  dei)end  upon 
the  teacher;  much,  also,  ujion  the  character  of  the  school  and  the  age 
and  previous  training  of  the  pupils.  If  the  teacher  has  a  moderate 
share  of  inventiveness  there  will  be  little  difficulty.     The  chief  thing 


ARBOR    DAY ITS    HISTORY    AND    OBSERVANCE.  21 

is  to  liave  the  i)upils  interested  in  what  they  do,  and  if  they  are  taken 
into  confidence  by  the  teacher  and  invited  to  ofier  suggestions,  they 
will  often  make  a  plan  so  sensible  and  satisfactory  as  almost  to  relieve 
the  teacher  from  any  burden  of  care  in  regard  to  it. 

Of  course  it  is  ])resunied  that  the  pupils  are,  to  some  extent,  pre- 
pared beforehand  for  the  celebration  of  Arbor  Day  by  having  it  spoken 
of  by  the  teacher  and  its  objects  explained,  and  tliat  there  has  been 
more  or  less  talk  on  the  part  of  the  teacher  and  readings  about  trees 
and  plants  and  some  familiarity  with  them  and  with  the  elements,  at 
least,  of  vegetable  physiology.  It  is  supposed  also  that  the  history 
and  character  of  distinguished  persons  in  honor  of  whom  it  is  proposed 
to  plant  trees  will  have  been  studied. 

As  the  time  of  celebration  draws  nigh,  therefore,  let  there  be  a  con- 
ference between  teacher  and  pupils  as  to  the  method  to  be  adopted. 
First,  as  to  the  tree  planting.  Where  is  it  to  be — on  the  school  ground 
or  on  some  highway,  or  in  some  park!  Is  it  to  be  done  by  the  school  or 
schools  alone,  or  in  cooperation  with  a  larger  general  movement  of  the 
inhabitants  of  the  place  for  the  improvement  of  its  appearance  by  a 
systematic  planting  of  trees  on  the  streets  and  elsewhere?  How  many 
trees  will  the  school  undertake  to  plant?  What  kinds  of  trees  will 
they  plant?  The  decision  of  the  last  question  will  depend  upon 
where  the  planting  is  to  take  place  and  whether  it  is  to  be  done  by  the 
school  alone  or  in  concert  with  others.  If  the  planting  is  to  be  upon  the 
school  j)remises,  it  may  be  desirable  to  plant  different  trees  from  those 
which  might  be  selected  for  the  street  or  the  park.  If  the  planting  is 
to  be  done  in  concert  with  others,  a  village  imi)roveinent  society  for 
instance,  then  the  choice  of  trees  will  properly  be  left  to  such  society. 

But  these  preliminary  questions  having  been  decided,  in  order  that 
all  may  go  smoothly  on  Arbor  Day,  and  to  provide  against  the  impedi- 
ments of  unfavorable  weather  at  that  time,  it  is  desirable  to  have  a  com- 
mittee of  the  older  pupils  appointed  to  see  that  the  designated  trees  are 
procured  beforehand,  and  that  holes  are  properly  prepared  for  their  recep- 
tion, so  that  there  may  be  no  unnecessary  delay  at  the  time  of  planting. 

These  arrangements  having  been  made,  it  remains  to  be  decided  with 
what  ceremonies  or  exercises  the  tree  planting  shall  be  accompanied. 
The  programme  in  this  respect  will  be  more  or  less  elaborate  according 
to  the  age  of  the  pui^ils,  the  customs  of  the  place,  and  the  extent  to 
which  the  Arbor  Day  spirit  has  been  already  developed.  But  let  it  be 
remembered  that  this  is  eminently  the  children's  day,  and  that  we  all 
like  ceremonies,  on  special  occasions  at  least.  And  if  the  grown-up 
man  needs  drum  and  fife,  epaulets  and  plumes  and  banners,  and  the 
measured  inarch  and  countermarch  to  make  his  soldiering  satisfactory, 
the  children  may  well  be  invited  on  Arbor  Day  to  march  along  the 
streets  to  the  music  of  their  own  familiar  songs,  wearing  such  scarfs 
and  badges  as  they  choose  to  decorate  themselves  with,  and  carrying 
aloft  their  banners  with  the  pride  of  young  patriots  and  scholars. 


22  ARBOR   DAY — ITS   HISTORY   AND    OBSERVANCE. 

It  will  be  well  for  the  pupils  to  assemble  witli  their  teachers  at  the 
schoolroom  in  the  morning  and  spend  a  portion  of  the  day — parents 
and  friends  being  present  also — in  listening  to  addresses  from  any  who 
may  have  been  invited  beforehand  to  speak  to  them.  Essays  may  also 
be  read  by  the  older  pupils.  These  may  be  interspersed  with  songs 
and  recitations  and  familiar  talks  about  trees  and  plants.  Later  in  the 
day,  in  the  afternoon,  perhaps,  the  planting  of  the  trees  will  take 
place,  songs,  addresses,  and  recitations  accompanying  the  planting  of 
each  tree.  The  character  of  the  weather  will  determine  how  much  of 
the  exercises  shall  take  place  in  the  open  air  and  how  much  in  the 
schoolroom  or  elsewhere.  It  is  the  custom  in  some  places,  and  a  very 
good  custom  it  is,  for  all  the  schools  to  come  together  at  some  central 
place,  after  the  planting  is  finished,  and  for  the  older  people,  who  have 
been  engaged  in  tree  planting,  to  meet  with  them  and  all  report  what 
they  have  done,  and  end  the  day  with  an  hour  or  two  around  a  Avell- 
spread  table,  and  with  music,  songs,  and  perhaps  pleasant  games. 


ADDRESSES  AND  EXTRACTS. 

The  following  address  by  Hon.  J.  Sterling 
Morton,  delivered  April  22,  1887,  at  the  State 
University,  Lincoln,  Nebr.,  has  a  fitting  place  in 
a  manual  of  Arbor  Day : 

ARBOR  DAY:  ITS  ORIGIN  AND  GROWTH. 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen:  Just  as  stars  iu  tlie  sky 
brighten  all  the  firmament  with  light,  so  holidays  and 
anniversaries  commemorate  exalted  characters,  recall 
noble  deeds,  and  perpetuate  pure  principles,  illumine  the  arena  of  human  life,  and 
light  up  the  higher  pathways  for  manly  effort  and  ambition. 

Ordinary  holidays  are  retrospective.  They  honor  something  good  and  great  which 
has  been,  and,  by  its  exaltation,  commend  it  to  the  emulation  of  mankind.  Thus  the 
past  is  made  to  inspire  the  present,  and  the  present  to  reach  into  and  influence  the 
immeasurable  and  unknowable  future. 

Buf  Arbor  Day" — Nebraska's  own  home-invented  and  home-instituted  anniver- 
sary— which  has  been  already  transplanted  to  nearly  every  State  m  the  American 
Union,  and  even  adopted  m  foreign  lands,  is  not  like  other  holidays.  Each  of  those 
reposes  upon  the  past,  while  Arbor  Day  proposes  for  the  future.  It  contemplates, 
not  the  good  and  the  beautiful  of  past  generations,  but  it  sketches,  outlines,  estab- 
lishes the  useful  and  the  beautiful  for  the  ages  yet  to  come.  Other  anniversaries 
stand  with  their  backs  to  the  future,  peering  into  and  worshipping  the  past;  but 
Arbor  Day  faces  the  future  with  an  affectionate  solicitude,  regarding  it  as  an  artist 
his  canvas,  and  etches  upon  our  prairies  and  plains  gigantic  groves  and  towering  for- 
ests of  waving  trees,  which  shall  for  our  posterity  become  consummate  living  pictures, 
compared  to  which  the  gorgeous  colorings  of  Rubens  are  tame  and  insignificant. 

The  wooded  landscape  in  sunlight  and  in  shadow,  which  you — iu  the  trees  you 
have  planted  to-day— have  only  faintly  limned,  shall  in  the  future  fruition  of  their 
summer  beauty  compel  the  admiration  and  gratitude  of  men  and  women  now  unborn. 


ARBOR   DAY ITS    HISTORY   AND    OBSERVANCE.  23 

who  shall  see  with  interest  and  satisfaction  their  symmetry  and  loveliness.  As  one 
friend  hands  to  another  a  bonqnet,  so  this  anniversary  sends  greetings  and  flowers, 
foliage  and  fruit,  to  posterity.  It  is  the  sole  holiday  of  the  human  family  which 
looks  forward  and  not  backward. 

Arbor  Day  originated  in  Lincoln  on  January  4,  1872.  Upon  that  day  the  festival 
was  instituted  by  a  resolution  of  the  Nebraska  State  board  of  agriculture.  It  was 
my  good  fortune  to  have  thought  out  this  plan  for  popularizing  arboriculture  and  to 
have  originated  the  term  or  phrase  "Arbor  Day"  and  to  have  written,  submitted, 
and  advocated  that  resolution,  and  thus  to  have  established  this  anniversary.  It 
will  grow  in  popular  esteem  from  year  to  year,  until  finally  it  shall  be  observed  uni- 
versally throughout  the  Union  of  American  States. 

It  has  become  the  scholastic  festival  of  our  times.  Common  schools,  colleges,  and 
universities  have  taken  its  practical  observance  under  their  own  speci.nl  and  intelli- 
gent direction.  The  zeal  of  youth  and  the  cultured  love  of  the  beautiful  combine  to 
perpetuate  and  to  popularize  it. 

That  which  should  survive  in  America  must  harmonize  with  education  and  refine- 
ment. Whatsoever  the  schools,  the  teachers,  and  the  pupils  shall  foster  and  encour- 
age, shall  live  and  flourish,  mentally  and  morally,  forever.  Students,  scholars,  and 
philosophers  have  ever  been  associated  with  trees  and  their  conservation.  The 
Academeia  of  Athens  where  Socrates  and  Plato  taught  was  only  a  grove  of  plane 
trees.  There  rhetoric,  logic,  and  philosophy  were  given  to  the  youth  of  Greece  by 
those  majestic  men,  whose  great  thoughts  more  than  two  thousand  years  after  their 
death  are  still  vitalizing  and  energizing  the  world  of  mind.  The  plane  tree  that 
Agamemnon  planted  at  Delphos;  the  one  grown  by  Menelaus,  the  husband  of  Helen 
of  Troy ;  and  that  one  which  so  charmed  Xerxes  with  its  surpassless  beauty,  when 
invading  Greece  with  his  great  army,  that  he  remained  one  entire  day  wrapped  in 
its  admiration,  encircling  it  with  a  gold  band,  decking  it  with  precious  jewels,  hav- 
ing its  figure  stamped  upon  a  golden  medal,  and  by  his  delay  losing  his  subsequent 
battle  with  the  Greeks — these  are  all  historic  trees  and  yet  strangers  almost  to  the 
average  reader. 

But  the  beautiful  avenues  and  tranquil  shades  of  the  grand  plane  tree,  which 
adorned  the  Academeia  of  Athens,  are  familiar  to  every  student.  The  voice  of 
Socrates  mingled  with  the  music  of  their  waving  boughs  and  Plato  mused  beneath 
their  far-extending  shadows.  Thus  the  first  fruits  of  philosophy  are  borne  to  us 
with  the  fact  that  Grecian  civilization  was  a  tree-planting  civilization.  And  the 
transmitted  wisdom  of  those  ages  illustrates  how  marvelously  trees  and  learning 
have  always  been  intimately  associated  together. 

Upon  the  inner  bark,  called  ''liber,"  of  trees  came  the  annals,  the  lore  of  all  the 
ancient  world's  written  life  inscribed  by  the  stylus.  Not  only  from  tree  bark  has 
the  intellect  of  man  taken  the  record  of  its  early  development,  but  even  the  word 
''library,"  which  embraces  all  the  conserved  thoughts  of  all  the  thinking  ages, 
comes  from  the  inner  bark  of  a  tree.  And  the  word  *'  book,"  take  either  derivation 
you  choose,  comes  from  one  in  German  or  Saxon  or  Scandinavian,  meaning  beech 
wood,  because  in  the  dawn  of  learning  all  records  were  written  on  beech  boards, 
and  the  leaf  and  the  folio  which  make  up  the  book  came  to  us  also  from  the  trees. 

But  leaving  ancient  times,  ceasing  to  trace  tree  ancestry  from  words,  and  reluc- 
tantly remaining  silent  as  to  many  delightful  delusions  concerning  the  sacred  groves 
of  Greece  and  Rome  and  their  storied  genii,  who  gave  wisdom  to  sages  and  judgment 
to  lawmakers,  and  skipping  likewise  all  the  tree  lore  and  tree  metaphor  in  the 
Bible — and  that  is  indeed  self-denial  on  an  occasion  like  this — let  us  see  how  forests 
and  our  English  ancestiy  are  indissolubly  connected,  and  how,  by  the  very  law  of 
heredity,  we  should  all  become  amateur  foresters. 

The  Druids  first  planted  forests  and  groves  in  England.  In  the  misty  twilight 
between  barbarism  and  civilization  the  teachers  and  students  of  Great  Britain  were 
Druids.     All  their  discourses  and  ceremonies  transpired  in  the  oaken  groves  and 


24  ARBOR    DAY ITS    HISTORY    AND    OBSERVANCE. 

sacred  orchards  of  their  own  planting,  and  Pliny  declares  the  word  ''Druid"  to 
have  come  from  the  Greek  word  drus — an  oak.  And  while  no  Druid  oaks  now 
remain,  there  are  still  in  England  many  very  venerable  trees.  Among  them  are  the 
Damory  oak,  of  Dorsetshire,  2,000  years  of  age;  Owen  Glendower's  oak  at  Shelton, 
near  Shrewsbury,  from  the  branches  of  which  that  chieftain  looked  down  upon  the 
battle  between  Henry  IV  and  Henry  Percy  in  1403.  The  great  oak  of  Magdalen 
College,  Oxford,  was  a  sturdy  sapling  when  nine  hundred  years  ago  Alfred  the  Great 
founded  that  institution  of  learning.  It  received  injuries  during  the  reign  of 
Charles  I  which  at  the  close  of  the  last  century  caused  its  decay  and  death. 

Windsor  Forest  is  notable  also  for  its  majestic  oaks  of  great  age,  one  of  them 
known  to  have  withstood  more  than  a  thousand  years  of  winter  and  summer  storms. 
Not  many  decades  have  passed  since  Heme's  oak,  which  had  borne  that  hunter's 
name  from  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  was  blown  down.  In  the  Merry  Wives  of  Wind- 
sor, Shakespeare  has  told  its  story.  Elizabeth,  who  was  first  saluted  at  Hatfield  as 
*'the  Queen  of  England,"  in  the  shade  of  the  towering  trees  of  oak  which  line  its 
broadest  avenues,  greatly  encouraged  agriculture,  and  was  among  the  first  English- 
speaking  advocates  of  forestry. 

When  Columbus  was  seeking  a  new  world,  his  crew,  anxious  and  incredulous,  even 
unto  mutiny,  the  waves  bore  out  to  his  ship  twigs  and  foliage  from  the  forests  of 
the  unknown  land,  giving  him  hope,  faith,  victory  even,  as  the  dove  with  the  olive 
branch  had  carried  God's  peace  to  Noah  centuries  before. 

Nearly  two  hundred  years  after  Columbus  carae  the  Puritans,  and  then  began  the 
war  upon  the  woodlands  of  America.  Since  then,  ax  in  hand,  the  race  has  advanced 
from  the  Atlantic  Seaboard  westward  for  more  than  two  centuries,  devastating  forests 
with  most  unreasoning  energy,  always  cutting  them  down,  and  never  replanting 
them.  Hewing  their  way  through  the  Eastern  and  Middle  States,  the  pioneers  have 
wantonly  destroyed  without  thought  of  their  posterity  millions  upon  millions  of 
acres  of  primeval  woodlands. 

Cleaving  right  and  left  through  Ohio,  Michigan,  and  Indiana,  felling  giant  trees, 
rolling  them  into  log  heaps  and  destroying  them  by  fire,  emigration  emerged  upon 
the  treeless  plains  of  Illinois  and  the  Northwest. 

Nature  teaches  by  antithesis.  When  sick  we  learn  to  value  health ;  when  blind 
we  realize  the  beneficence,  the  surprising  and  delicious  sense  of  sight;  when  deaf 
we  dream  of  the  music  we  loved  to  hear,  and  melodies  forever  dead  to  the  ear  float 
through  the  mind  that  is  insulated  from  sound  like  sweet  memories  of  the  loved 
and  lost.  So  these  treeless  plains,  stretching  from  Lake  Michigan  to  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  were  unfolded  to  the  vision  of  the  pioneer  as  a  great  lesson  to  teach 
him,  by  contrast  with  the  grand  forests  whence  he  had  just  emerged,  the  indispen- 
sability  of  woodlands  and  their  economical  use.  Almost  rainless,  only  habitable  by 
bringing  forest  products  from  other  lands,  these  prairies,  by  object  teaching,  incul- 
cated tree  planting  as  a  necessity  and  the  conservation  of  the  few  fire-scarred  forests 
along  their  streams  as  an  individual  and  public  duty.  Hence  out  of  our  physical 
environments  have  grown  this  anniversary  and  the  intelligent  zeal  of  Nebraskans  in 
establishing  woodlands  where  they  found  only  the  monotony  of  plain,  until  to-day 
this  State  stands  foremost  in  practical  forestry  among  all  the  members  of  the  Amer- 
ican Union. 

An  arboretum  is  to  tree  culture  what  a  university  is  to  mental  life.  The  skilled 
forester  gathers  in  the  former  all  varieties  of  trees,  studies  the  habits  and  require- 
ments of  each,  and  stimulates  growth  and  defines  forms  by  all  the  appliances  of  his 
art.  In  the  universities  are  collected  human  intellects  of  all  types  and  all  degrees 
of  strength  and  quickness.  Here,  as  amcng  the  trees,  are  all  the  inexorable  and 
ineffaceable  results  of  the  operations  of  the  law  of  heredity.  Here,  as  in  the 
arboretum,  we  are  taught  that  though  nurture  may  do  much,  nature  does  most. 

The  Cottonwood  can  never  become  an  oak,  but  it  can  pass  the  oak  in  the  race  for 
maturity.    It  can  even  aid  the  oak  to  become  more  stately  in  form,  to  grow  straighter 


ARBOR    DAY ITS    HISTORY   AND    OBSERVANCE.  25 

and  taller  than  when  left  to  itself,  without  the  competition  of  more  swiftly  shooting 
trees.  A  row  of  acorns  planted  between  two  lines  of  infant  cottonwoods  will  come 
up  and  make  an  effort  to  reach  sunlight,  up  beyond  the  shadows  of  their  soft-wood 
competitors,  which  oaks  never  make  when  planted  by  themselves.  Thus  in  the 
arboretum  the  less  is  made  to  act  as  a  nurse  and  guardian  to  the  more  valuable 
timber.  At  Arbor  Lodge  some  years  since,  in  1865,  I  planted  a  long  row  of  black 
walnuts  between  two  ranks  of  swiftly  growing  soft-wood  trees — maple  on  one  side 
and  Cottonwood  on  tlie  other.  During  these  twenty  years  I  have  watched  the 
walnuts  growing  symmetrically  and  beautifully  to  great  height,  in  their  struggle  to 
reach  the  light  up  and  beyond  the  shade  of  their  less  valuable  contemporaries  and 
co-tenants.  They  are  higher,  better  trees  than  they  would  have  been  without  the 
rivalry  of  their  neighbors — their  classmates. 

So  mind  by  contact  with  mind  and  struggle  of  brain  with  brain  is  improved.  The 
mediocrity  of  one  is  almost  obliterated  by  contests  with  the  superiority  of  another. 
Just  as  trees  seek— must  have— sunlight,  just  as  they  reach  up  into  the  sky  for  it  out 
from  shade,  so  the  mind  in  competitive  seeking  after  knowledge  ever  exalts  itself, 
perfects  and  embellishes  itself.  A  dull  brain  developing  in  solitude  is  dwarfed  and 
gnarled  like  a  lone  oak  on  the  prairie ;  "but  associated  with  the  sharp,  quick  perceptions 
of  its  superiors,  it  becomes  a  better  brain,  and  bestows  benefits  upon  mankind  where 
in  solitude  it  would  have  withered  into  fruitlessuess.  The  wonderful  similitudes 
between  tree  life  and  human  life  are  almost  innumerable.  They  have  been  recog- 
nized in  all  ages,  and  man's  metaphors  for  all  that  is  beautiful,  useful,  desirable, 
and  immortal  have  been,  since  written  language  began,  largely  drawn  from  sylvan 
life.  The  ''Tree  of  Knowledge,'  the  ''Tree  of  Liberty,"  the  "Tree  of  Everlasting 
Life"  have  been  planted  in  all  poesy;  they  have  bloomed  in  all  literature  from  the 
remotest  of  historic  times.  Books  not  drawing  simile,  metaphor,  or  other  figure  of 
speech  from  tree  life  have  been  rare  indeed.  But  the  most  beautiful  tree,  with  its 
sheltering  arms  and  its  many-voiced  foliage  singing  in  the  breeze,  dancing  in  the 
sunbeams,  and  motioning  to  its  own  reflections  on  the  greensward  mirror  below,  with 
all  its  lustrous  burden  of  fruit  or  flowers  shimmering  in  the  light,  has  a  lower  life 
invisible  to  us.  Deep  in  the  dark,  damp  earth  its  rootlets  are  groveling  for  exist- 
ence—seeking here  and  there  all  manner  of  rottenness  and  feeding  thereon  with 
gluttonous  avidity.  Up  in  the  clouds,  gilded  with  sunshine,  resplendent  with  color- 
ing, nods  the  stately  head;  but  down  in  the  darkness  and  dirt  are  its  supporters. 

And  as  trees  thus  lead  a  dual  life,  an  upper  and  a  lower,  so  does  man.  The  intel- 
lect, the  reason,  bathes  in  the  light  of  knowledge.  It  scales  the  height  of  the  firma- 
ment and  reads  the  story  of  the  stars.  It  descends  into  the  profoundest  depths  of 
the  sea  and  wrenches  the  secrets  of  creation  from  the  rocks  and  shoals.  Beautiful, 
symmetrical,  flashing,  and  entrancing  as  a  grand  oak  in  autumn  when  crowned  with 
gorgeous  gold  and  crimson  and  purple  leaves  is  the  sturdy  mind  of  a  mature  man, 
who,  in  temperance  and  tranquillity,  has  during  a  useful  life  grown  strong  in 
knowle  'ge,  in  truth,  fidelity,  and  honor. 

Man's  intellectual  life  must  dominate.  His  lower  life  must  be  subservient.  His 
mentality,  like  the  tree  top  with  its  foliage,  flowers,  and  luscious  fruit,  alone  bestows 
the  blessings.  That  is  man's  higher  life,  and  where  it  governs,  man  is  man  as  nature 
meant  man  to  be.  The  small  trees  of  to-day's  planting  will  develop  into  the  groves 
and  forests  of  the  future.  They  will  contribute  the  materials  for  ships,  railroads, 
business  edifices,  and  homes,  to  be  used  by  those  who  are  born  in  coming  centuries. 

The  almost  infinite  possibilities  of  a  tvee  germ  came  to  my  mind  last  summer  when, 
traveling  in  a  railway  carriage  amid  the  beautifully  cultivated  fields  of  Belgium,  a 
cotton  wood  seed  on  its  wings  of  down  drifted  into  my  compartment.  It  came  like  a 
materialized  whisper  from  home.  Catching  it  in  my  hand  1  forgot  the  present  and 
wandered  into  the  past  to  a  floating  mote  like  that,  which  had  years  and  years 
before  been  planted  by  the  winds  and  currents  on  the  banks  of  the  Missouri.  That 
mote  had  taken  life  and  root  and  growing  to  splendid  proportions  until  in  1854  the 


26 


ARBOR    DAY ITS    HISTORY    AND    OBSERVANCE. 


ax  of  the  pioneers  had  vanquished  it,  and  the  saw,  seizing  it  with  relentless, 
whirling  teeth,  had  reduced  it  to  lumber.  From  its  treehood  evolved  a  human  habita- 
tion, a  home — my  home — wherein  a  mother's  love  had  blossomed  and  fruited  with  a 
sweetness  surpassing  the  loveliness  of  the  rose  and  the  honeysuckle.  Thus  from  that 
former  feathery  iloater  in  mid-air  grew  a  home  and  all  the  endearing  contentment 
and  infinite  satisfaction  which  that  blessed  Anglo-Saxon  word  conveys — that  one 
word  which  means  all  that  is  worth  living  for  and  for  which  alone  all  good  men  and 
women  are  living. 

Here  are  a  few  acoms  to-day;  to-morrow,  a  century  hence,  they  are  sturdy  oaks, 
then  ships,  railroads,  carriages,  and  everything  useful,  and  parts  of  homes  which  are 
all — in  both  poetry  and  reality — that  is  lovable,  beautiful,  and  suj)remely  tender  in 
the  career  of  humanity  from  birth  to  death.  The  real  of  to-day  was  the  ideal  of 
yesterday;  the  ideal  of  to-day  will  be  the  real  of  to-morrow. 

And  as  arboretums  are  developing  the  infant  forests,  nursing  tremendous  timbers, 
whence  masts  and  spars  and  sills  and  joists  shall  emerge  into  'swiftly  sailing  ships 


and  massive  marts  of  trade,  which  are  to  convey  and  cover  the  commerce  of  coming 
times,  so  in  the  schools,  the  colleges,  and  universities  are  growing  the  mental  timber 
whence  the  State  shall  cull  in  the  near  future  those  pillars  and  supports  which  aid 
to  bear  up  forever  in  America  civil  and  religious  liberty;  that  is,  freedom  to  think, 
freedom  to  speak,  freedom  to  trade,  freedom  to  develop  individualism,  and  to  assert 
its  consciousness  of  right  without  fear  either  of  sectarian  or  partisan  bigotry.  Let 
us  all,  then,  each  in  his  vocation  and  sphere,  plant  wisely  for  the  years  to  come, 
rather  than  dwell  dejectedly  upon  the  years  gone  and  going — the  farmer,  his  forest 
and  orchard,  the  teacher  his  science  and  morals.  Improved  materially  by  the  former, 
intellectually  by  the  latter,  the  world  will  well  with  gratitude  to  both.  But  tree 
planter  and  teacher  united  in  one  shall  be  declared  the  best  benefactor  of  modern 
times — the  chief  provider  for  posterity. 

On  the  10th  day  of  July,  1886,  from  the  crowded,  hurrying  streets  of  London  I 
loitered  into  the  solemn  aisles  of  St.  Paul's  Cathedral.  Around  on  every  side  were 
the  statues  of  England's  heroes.  Upon  tablets  of  brass  and  marble  were  inscribed 
their  eulogiums.      In  fierce  warfare  on  wave  and  field  they  had  exalted  English 


ARBOR    DAY ITS    HISTORY    AND    OBSERVANCE.  27 

courage  and  won  renown  for  England's  arms.  Nelson  and  Wellington,  victors  by- 
sea  and  land,  were  there,  and  hundreds  more  whose  epitaphs  were  written  in  blood 
which,  as  it  poured  from  ghastly  wounds,  had  borne  other  mortals  to  the  unknown 
world.  Few  men  who  won  distinction  in  civil  life  are  entombed  at  "St.  Paul's,  but 
among  them  is  the  gifted  architect.  Sir  Christopher  Wren,  in  whose  brain  the  con- 
cept of  St.  Paul's  Cathedral  had  a  mental  existence  before  it  materialized  in  massive 
marble.  His  epitaph  is  plain,  brief,  truthful,  impressive ;  it  is  one  which  each  hon- 
orable man  in  all  the  world  may  humbly  strive  for  and  become  the  better  for  the  striv- 
ing ;  it  is  one  which  every  faithful  disciple  of  horticulture,  of  forestry,  will  deserve 
from  his  friends,  his  family,  and  his  country ;  vast  orchards  which  he  has  planted  and 
the  great  arms  of  towering  elms,  spreading  their  soothing  shade  like  a  benediction 
over  the  weary  wayfarer  who  rests  at  their  feet,  and  all  the  fluttering  foliage  whis- 
pering to  the  wanton  winds  shall  tell  the  story  of  his  benefaction  to  humanity,  arbor- 
phoning  that  epitaph  with  perennial  fidelity,  "Si  quseris  monumentum,  circum- 
spice" — If  you  seek  my  monument,  look  around  you. 

Appropriately  following  the  address  of  Mr,  Morton,  some  extracts' 
from  an  address  of  the  Hon.  B.  G.  l^orthrop,  on  Arbor  Day,  before  the 
Massachusetts  Horticultural  Society,  have  place  here : 

OBSERVANCE  OF  ARBOR  DAY  BY  SCHOOLS. 

In  this  g.and  work  initiated  by  Governor  Morton  [J.  Sterling  Morton],  its  appli- 
cation to  schools  was  not  named.  The  great  problem  then  was  to  meet  the  urgent 
needs  of  vast  treeless  prairies.  At  the  meeting  of  the  American  Forestry  Associa- 
tion, held  at  St.  Paul,  Minn,,  in  August,  1883,  a  resolution  which  I  offered  in  favor 
of  observing  Arbor  Day  in  schools  in  all  our  States  and  in  the  provinces  of  the 
Dominion  of  Canada  (the  association  being  international)  was  adopted,  and  a  com- 
mittee to  push  that  work  was  appointed.  Continued  as  their  chairman  from  that 
day  to  this,  I  have  presented  the  claims  of  Arbor  Day  personally  or  by  letter  to  the 
governor  or  State  school  superintendent  in  all  our  States  and  Territories.  My  first 
efforts  were  not  encouraging.  By  men  in  high  positions  Arbor  Day  was  deemed  an 
obtrusive  innovation.  It  was  no  surprise  to  me  when  my  paper  on  "Arbor  Day  in 
Schools,"  read  at  the  National  Educational  Association  (department  of  superintend- 
ence) at  Washington,  in  February,  1884,  called  out  the  comment,  "This  subject  is 
out  of  place  here."  Though  that  paper  was  printed  by  the  United  States  Bureau  of 
Education,  it  was  a  grateful  surprise  that  the  next  meeting  of  the  National  Educa- 
tional Association,  held  in  August  of  the  same  year,  at  Madison,  Wis.,  with  an 
unprecedeutedly  large  attendance,  unanimously  adopted  my  resolution  in  favor  of 
Arbor  Day  in  schools  in  all  our  States. 

The  logic  of  events  has  answered  objections.  Wherever  it  has  been  fairly  tried,  it 
has  stood  the  test  of  experience.  Now  such  a  day  is  observed  in  forty  States  and 
Territories  in  accordance  with  legislative  act,  or  by  special  recommendation  of  the 
governor  or  State  school  superintendent,  or  the  State  grange,  or  the  State  horticul- 
tural and  agricultural  societies,  and  in  some  States,  as  in  Connecticut,  by  all  these 
combined.  It  has  already  become  the  most  interesting,  widely  observed,  and  useful 
of  school  holidays. 

Arbor  Day  has  fostered  love  of  country.  Now  that  the  national  flag  with  its  forty- 
four  stars  floats  over  all  the  schoolhouses  in  so  many  States,  patriotism  is  effectively 
combined  with  the  Arbor  Day  addresses,  recitations,  and  songs.  Among  the  latter, 
the  "Star  Spangled  Banner"  and  "America"  usually  find  a  place.  Who  can  esti- 
mate the  educating  influence  already  exerted  upon  the  myriads  of  youth  who  have 
participated  in  these  exercises? 

To  the  teaching  of  forestry  in  schools,  it  is  objected  that  the  course  of  study  is 
already  overcrowded — and  this  is  true.  But  I  have  long  urged  that  trees  and  tree 
life  and  culture  form  a  fit  subject  for  the  oral  lessons  now  commou  in  all  our  best 


28  ARBOR   DAY — ITS   HISTORY   AND    OBSERVANCE. 

schools.  When  agent  of  the  hoard  of  edncation  of  Massachn setts  I  sometimes  took 
to  the  schools  and  iustitntes  a  collection  of  our  common  woods,  as  an  ohject  lesson, 
one  of  many  aids  in  ohservation,  discriminating  wood  hy  the  grain.  The  same  plan 
was  occasionally  tried  in  Connecticut,  and  with  good  results.  To  give  one  of  many 
illustrations:  A  citizen  of  Norfolk,  Conn.,  olfered  eighteen  volumes  of  Appleton's 
Science  Primers  to  any  pupil  who  should  gather  and  arrange  the  largest  and  hest 
collection  of  the  different  kinds  of  wood,  shruh,  or  vine  growing  in  that  town. 
Great  interest  Avas  awakened,  and  135  varieties  were  gathered  hy  all  the  competitors, 
of  which  the  collection  of  Washington  Beach  (who  won  the  prize)  numbered  125. 
What  a  discipline  in  quickness  and  accuracy  of  percejition  those  schoolboys  gained 
while  exploring  the  fields,  hills,  and  mountains  of  this  large  town,  and  discriminat- 
ing all  these  varieties  by  the  grain  or  hark !  With  no  interruption  of  studies,  there 
was  a  quickened  zest  and  vigor  for  school  work,  and,  best  of  all,  that  rare  and  price- 
less attainment,  a  trained  eye.     *     *     * 

Those  talks  on  trees,  which  Superintendent  Peasleesays  ''were  the  most  profitable 
lessons  the  pupils  of  Cincinnati  ever  had  in  a  single  day,^'  occupied  only  the  morning 
of  Arbor  Day,  the  afternoon  being  given  to  the  practical  work.  Since  1883  our 
schools  have  rendered  new  service  to  the  State  as  well  as  to  their  pupils  by  leading 
them  to  study  the  habits  of  trees,  and  appreciate  their  value  and  beauty — thus  tend- 
ing to  make  practical  horticulturists  and  arborists.  How  many  of  these  children  in 
maturer  years  will  learn  from  happy  experience  that  trees,  like  grateful  children, 
bring  rich  filial  returns,  and  compensate  a  thousand  fold  for  all  the  care  they  cost. 
George  W^illiam  Curtis  says,  ''Arbor  Day  will  make  the  country  visibly  more  beauti- 
ful year  by  year.  Every  school  district  will  contribute  to  the  good  work.  The 
schoolhouse  will  gradually  become  an  ornament  of  the  village  and  the  children  will 
be  put  in  the  way  of  living  upon  more  friendly  and  intelligent  terms  with  the  bounti- 
ful nature  which  is  so  friendly  to  us." 

Kindred  in  sentiment  with  the  address  of  Secretary  Morton  and  the 
remarks  of  Dr.  Northrop  are  the  foUowing  words  of  Dr.  E.  E.  Higbee, 
the  late  distinguislied  State  superintendent  of  public  instruction  of 
Pennsylvania : 

ARBOR  DAY  FOR  THE  COMMONWEALTH. 

Recognizing  the  peculiar  fitness  of  the  executive  proclamation  fixing  an  Arbor  Day 
for  the  Commonwealth,  it  has  been  our  effort  and  pleasure  to  make  it  in  every  way 
as  efficient  for  good  as  possible  in  relation  to  our  public  schools.  Here,  among  the 
children,  habits  of  thought  and  feeling  in  regard  to  the  benefits  and  uses  of  tree 
planting  can  be  formed,  which  Avill  deter  them,  it  is  hoped,  from  that  destructive 
greed  Avhich  has  forgotten  the  value  and  beauty  of  green  woodlands  and  parks,  and 
the  glory  of  shadowy  hills  and  leaf-hidden  streams  where  the  trout  snaps  the  unwary 
fly  and  the  liverworts  peep  out  from  the  dewy  moss  and  wake-robins  nod  their  heads 
to  the  answering  ferns.  Children  need,  in  their  innocent  up-springing,  to  have  room 
to  get  away  from  the  garish  sun  and  rest,  as  upon  a  mother's  bosom,  in  the  twilight 
silence  of  the  growing  woods.  AVe  have  endeavored  to  keep  in  view,  so  far  as  pos- 
sible, the  educational  power  of  such  things  by  urging  that  our  school  grounds  be 
supplied  with  shade  trees  and  shrubs  and  flowers,  and  that  the  naked  walls  of  our 
school  buildings  be  trellised  over  with  vines.  Children  feel  most  deeply  the  ministry 
of  that  which  charms  the  eye. 

We  are  what  sun  autl  winds  and  water  make  us ; 
The  mountains  are  our  sponsors,  and  the  rills 
Fashion  and  win  their  nursling  with  their  smiles. 

Unconsciously  each  impression  of  such  character  sinks  into  the  tender  depths  of 
their  souls  and  there  it  remains  as  in  reflection  do  the  willows  in  the  placid  stream. 
In  fact,  the  scenes  of  nature  are  perennial  companions,  growing  more  friendly  from 


AEBOE   DAY ITS   HISTORY    AND    OBSERVANCE. 


29 


year  to  year.  Those  most  familiar,  wherever  we  may  be,  are  ever  entering  the  study 
of  our  imagination  and  often  giving  direction  even  to  our  acts.  ''The  shepherd,"  as 
with  exquisite  pathos  has  been  said  by  Wordsworth,  ''is  half  a  shepherd  on  the 
stormy  sea,  and  hears  in  piping  shrouds  the  tones  of  waterfalls  and  inland  sounds  of 
caves  aiid  trees ;  and  in  the  bosom  of  the  deep  sees  mountains,  sees  the  forms  of  sheep 
that  grazed  on  verdant  hills." 

Arbor  Day,  repeated  in  our  schools  from  year  to  year,  will  cultivate  a  reverent  love 
of  nature,  will  lead  our  children  to  value  studious  walks  along  our  streams  and  hills 
and  through  our  winding  valleys  and  wide,  windy  sweeps  of  harvest  fields  and 
meadows,  and  into  our  bosky  dells  to  waken  cour- 
teous Echo  to  give  them  answer  from  her  mos8> 
couch. 

There  is,  indeed,  a  power  and  a  culturing  beauty 
in  all  this  which  every  child  may  experience  if  he 
will ;  and  Arbor  Day  serves  to  enforce  it  upon  his 
thought.  Why  should  not  our  school  children 
cherish  a  holiday  which  brings  theni_  into  direct 
sympathy  with  the  sweet  companionship  of  man 
with  nature  ?  Why  should  they  not  offer  their  aid 
in  giving  to  our  school-grounds  green  lawns  over 
which  the  wind-stirred  trees  may  scatter  gold  and 
porphyry — where  the  laughing  daffodils  may  wel- 
come the  returning  swallows,  and  glowing  clusters 
of  chrysanthemums  may  soften  the  cold  of  autumn 
winds  with  thoughts  of  summer  ?  Why  should  they 
not  surround  their  school  home,  which  they  must 
so  soon  leave  for  the  harsh  toil  of  business  life,  with 
all  that  can  make  the  memory  of  it  a  joy  forever? 

VALUE  AND  USES  OF  ARBOR  DAY 

A  very  just  tribute  to  the  value  and  uses 
of  Arbor  Day  will  be  fouud  in  the  address 
of  Prof.  George  Mull,  of  Franklin  and  Mar 
shall  College,  in  connection  with  the  observ- 
ance of  the  day  at  the  High  School,  Lan- 
caster, Pa. : 

Arbor  Day  is  no  longer  a  novelty,  confined  here 
and  there  to  isolated  districts,  and  attracting  atten- 
tion in  the  minds  of  few  as  a  conspicuous  evidence 
of  an  enlightened  i^ubllc  sentiment  in  a  few  favored 
localities.  A  good  thing  is  always  sure  to  make  its 
way,  and  it  can  not  be  said  that  this  particular 
good  thing  which  claims  our  consideration  to-day 

was  slow  in  making  its  way  into  the  heart  of  ])ublic-school  life  throughout  the 
length  and  breadth  of  our  country.  Scarcely  heard  of,  barely  thought  of,  a 
few  years  ago,  it  was  possible  to  make  the  statement,  at  the  American  Forestry 
Congress,  last  December,  that  Arbor  Day  is  now  kept  in  nearly  every  State  of  the 
Union  and  in  some  of  the  Territories,  and,  indeed,  in  one  State,  South  Carolina, 
a  whole  week  is  now  devoted  annually  to  tree  planting.  Such  a  rapid  and  wide- 
spread adoption  of  the  custom  is  a  sufficient  indication  of  the  merits  of  its  claim  to 
popular  favor.  It  is  hardly  time  yet  to  count  the  cost  and  estimate  the  results,  but 
from  what  has  already  been  done  there  can  be  ho  doubt  that  the  practical  benefits 
accruing  to  the  material  well-being  of  the  country  from  the  faithful  observance  of  the 


30  ARBOR    DAY — ITS    HISTORY    AND    OBSERVANCE. 

day,  will,  in  the  near  future,  by  the  incontestable  proof  of  what  the  eye  may  beholfl, 
establish  the  wisdom  of  those  who  have  the  honor  to  be  numbered  among  thefound- 
ers  of  this  most  excellent  institution.  With  reference  to  this  phase  of  the  subject — 
the  bearing  it  has  upon  the  material  prosperity  of  the  country — there  can  be  no  dif- 
ference of  opinion.  Everyone  who  is  familiar  with  the  statistics  showing  the  rapid 
destruction  of  our  forests  will  readily  agree  that  there  is  urgent  need  that  the  pub- 
lic attention  should  be  directed  to  tree  planting,  and  there  is  no  other  medium 
througii  which  this  can  be  so  effectually  accomplished  as  through  the  puldic  schools. 
It  was  wisely  ordered,  therefore,  that  the  public  schools  should  be  enlisted  in  the 
work  of  conserving  the  material  prosperity  of  the  State  in  this  important  respect. 

But  while  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  Arbor  Day  owes  its  institution  primarily  to 
economic  considerations,  and  that  upon  this  ground  it  met  with  so  swift  a  response 
of  popular  recognition  and  interest,  it  is  equally  certain  that  the  founders  of  the 
day  builded  better  than  they  knew.  For  the  broad  and  beneficent  results  flowing 
from  this  movement  are  not  to  be  estimated  in  their  sum  total  by  the  impressive 
array  of  cold  figures  in  statistical  tables— not  even  though  they  reach  the  enormous 
proportions  of  '' 605,000,000  trees  planted  in  the  single  State  of  Nebraska,  and  now 
thriving  there,  where  a  few  years  ago  none  could  be  seen  except  along  the  streams; 
and  this  used  to  be  called  'The  Great  American  Desert,'  where  seventeen  years  ago 
the  geographies  said  trees  would  not  grow — and  now  the  leading  State  of  America 
for  tree  planting.'' 

But  this,  though  it  be  a  matter  for  congratulation  and  rejoicing,  conveys  but  a  faint 
idea  of  the  importance  of  the  day  as  touching  the  very  springs  of  our  social  life  by 
its  intimate  connection  with  the  public  schools  of  the  Commonwealth.  More  than 
this,  if  merely  utilitarian  or  purely  commercial  considerations  are  to  dominate  our 
reflections  upon  this  day,  then  we  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  the  day  had  bet- 
ter not  been  instituted.  For  in  the  midst  of  the  intense  activity  of  the  present  age, 
when  ail  around  us  we  see  the  plainly  marked  tracks  of  that  myriad-shaped  spirit 
of  the  times,  whose  tendency  is  ever  toward  the  practical  and  material  side  of  life, 
and  which  can  see  little  or  no  good  in  anything  that  has  not  its  immediate  fruitage 
in  palpable  results  to  be  measured  by  the  yardstick,  weighed  in  scales,  and  counted 
up  in  bank  books;  Avhen,  in  the  significant  language  of  a  thoughtful  public  school 
man,  '^ knowledge  is  no  longer  regarded  as  the  wings  wherewith  Ave  fly  to  Heaven, 
but  the  claws  with  which  we  burrow  into  the  earth  in  search  of  its  glittering  treas- 
ures ; "  when,  in  a  word,  we  are  confronted  on  all  sides  by  forces  that  irresistibly  impel 
us  foward  in  the  lines  of  practical  pursuit  with  a  natural  leaning  toward  selfishness 
and  greed ;  under  these  circumstances,  surely,  there  would  seem  to  be  no  need  to  give 
impetus  to  a  stream  that  has  such  a  strong  current  of  its  own  by  making  a  special 
effort  to  set  before  the  children  of  the  Commonwealth  the  observance  of  this  day,  as 
an  object  lesson  in  tree  planting,  upon  grounds  of  thrift  and  x>nblic  economy  alone 

Happily  there  is  another  phase  of  the  question  which  makes  the  celebration  of 
Arbor  Day  altogether  commendable.  I  refer  to  the  educational  value  it  possesses, 
which,  indeed,  is  not  to  be  estimated  by  the  stores  of  useful  knowledge  clustering 
around  it  and  finding  through  this  channel  an  easy  way  into  the  mental  equipment 
of  the  scholars.  The  wise  teacher,  to  be  sure,  will  not  fail  to  utilize  the  occasion 
as  one  of  the  best  means  placed  at  his  disposal  for  the  purpose  of  imparting  prac- 
tical instruction  in  the  department  of  botanical  science.  The  significance  of  this 
feature  is  not  to  be  underestimated.  It  is  of  unquestionable  importance,  but  there 
is  still  a  higher  importance  attaching  to  the  celebration  of  the  day,  viz,  the  cultiva- 
tion of  a  feeling  for  nature,  by  bringing  us  into  touch  and  sympathy  with  the  won- 
drous works  of  the  Great  Creator  as  revealed  in  the  manifold  forms  of  beauty — the 
endless  variety  of  his  handiwork  throughout  the  vegetable  kingdom.  We  are  so 
wrapped  up  in  our  daily  pursuits,  so  immersed  in  the  things  of  flesh  and  sense  that 
are  of  necessity  involved  in  the  unceasing  struggle  for  existence  and  for  a  comforta- 
ble living,  that  the  deeper  spiritual  forces  of  our  being  are  in  constant  danger  of 


ARBOR   DAY ITS   HISTORY   AND    OBSERVANCE.  31 

being  suppressed.  We  need  something  to  draw  us  away  from  the  hardening  condi- 
tions of  a  life  centered  in  self  and  absorbed  in  the  purely  material  aspect  of  things. 
Especially  do  we  need  something  to  create  and  stimulate  in  the  hearts  of  our  chil- 
dren a  genuine  love  for  the  works  of  nature.  This  can  not  be  done  by  the  text-book 
study  of  botany — no  mote  than  the  treasures  of  literature  can  be  appropriated  and 
made  a  heart  possession  by  the  study  of  grammar.  It  can  not  be  done  by  studying 
nature  solely  in  the  interest  of  scientific  truth. 

To  this,  one  of  the  world's  greatest  students  of  nature,  Charles  Darwin,  has  borne 
conclusive  testimony.  Indeed,  it  is  inexpressibly  sad  to  hear  him  in  his  later  years, 
when  the  '^ frontlet  of  olive  culled  far  and  wide"  was  vying  with  the  "ivy  leaf,  the 
meed  of  learned  brows"  to  grace  the  chaplet  of  his  enduring  fame,  declare  in  the 
undertones  of  lamentation  that  he  could  not  endure  to  read  a  line  of  poetry,  that 
Shakespeare  was  so  intolerably  dull  as  to  nauseate  him,  that  he  had  almost  lost  his 
taste  for  pictures  and  music,  that  fine  scenery  failed  to  cause  him  the  exquisite  delight 
it  formerly  did,  and  that  his  mind  seemed  to  have  become  a  kind  of  machine  for  grind- 
ing general  laws  out  of  large  collections  of  facts,  resulting  in  the  atrophy  of  that 
part  of  the  brain  on  which  the  higher  tastes  depend.  "The  loss  of  these  tastes," 
mark  his  words,  "is  a  loss  of  happiness,  and  may  possibly  be  injurious  to  the  intel- 
lect, and  more  probably  to  the  moralcharacter,  by  enfeebling  the  emotional  part  of 
our  nature." 

Let  us  take  the  lesson  to  heart.  It  needs  to  be  heeded,  for,  in  the  strenuous  efforts 
that  are  now  being  i)ut  forth,  with  the  best  of  motives,  to  make  our  education  more 
and  more  practical,  the  importance  of  cultivating  the  aesthetic  and  moral  faculties 
is  only  too  apt  to  be  overshadowed.  It  is  possible  to  become  too  practical.  "Rus- 
kin  speaks  of  men  so  ^  practical '  that  they  would  turn  the  human  race  into  vegeta- 
bles, make  the  earth  a  stable,  and  its  fruit  fodder.  There  are  vine  dressers  and 
husbandmen,"  he  says,  "who  love  the  corn  they  grind  and  the  grapes  they  crush 
better  than  the  gardens  of  the  angels  upon  the  slopes  of  Eden;  hewers  of  wood  and 
drawers  of  water,  who  think  that  the  wood  they  hew  and  the  water  they  draw  are 
better  than  the  pine  forests  that  cover  the  mountains  like  the  shadow  of  God,  and 
the  great  rivers  that  move  like  his  eternity."  For  all  such,  nature  speaks  in  no 
intelligible  voice,  Milton's  grand  epic  has  no  meaning  because  it  "  proves  nothing," 
the  healthy  and  elevating  tone  of  the  writings  of  a  Wood  and  a  Jefferies  touches  no 
responsive  chord,  and  these  loving  interpreters  of  nature  have  their  books  rated 
"heavy"  by  the  trade.  "We  observe  the  face  of  nature  so  little,  that  the  few 
enthusiasts  who  have  come  to  know  her  speak  to  us,  when  they  would  describe  her 
beauties,  in  an  unknown  tongue." 

The  planting  of  a  tree,  the  tender  care  bestowed  upon  it,  the  eager  watching  for 
new  developments  in  its  growth,  the  tending  of  aflower  bed,  the  training  of  a  vine, 
will  for  many  a  child  prove  the  "open  sesame"  into  the  charmed  circle  of  those 
forces  and  factors  of  the  natural  world  which  purify,  refine,  and  ennoble  the  heart 
of  man.  Tlie  process  itself  can  not  be  indicated.  It  is  secret,  silent,  past  finding 
out.  It  is  a  growth — that  subtle  something,  which  is  forever  escaping  the  clutch  of 
the  keenest  investigator,  only  to  find  easy  access  to  the  soul  of  him  who  hath  eyes  to 
see  and  ears  to  hear  what  is  revealed  of  the  Infinite  in  the  finite  order  of  creation. 

Powers  there  are 
That  touch  each  other  to  the  quick — in  modes 
Which  the  gross  world  no  sense  hath  to  perceive, 
No  soul  to  dream  of. 

— [Wordsworth. 

Though  we  may  not  analyze  these  mysterious  powers  which  touch  us  at  every 
point  of  our  natural  environment,  quickening  our  impulses,  warming  our  affections, 
exalting  our  thoughts,  purifying  our  tastes,  enlightening  our  whole  being,  we  know 
enough  of  them  to  prize  them  at  their  full  value.  Nor  is  this  beyond  the  range  of 
the  practical.     For  what  is  more  truly,  more  wisely  practical,  than  to  set  in  operation. 


32  ARBOR    DAY ITS    HISTORY   AND    OBSERVANCE. 

forces  and  influences  that  will  contribute  to  the  personal  happiness  and  comfort  of 
the  individual?  What  more  practical,  than  to  introduce  into  our  homes  an  appre- 
ciative sense  of  the  beautiful,  the  healthful,  the  useful  in  nature?  It  is  but  a  step 
from  the  school  to  the  home,  and  it  is  clearly  the  part  of  practical  wisdom  to  make 
that  step  as  fraught  with  beneficent  results  as  it  is  possible  to  effect  in  the  school. 
A  right  feeling  for  nature  means  infinitely  more  than  the  planting  of  trees.  By  a 
necessary  law  of  association,  it  embraces  a  wide  range  of  conditions  in  our  every- 
day life.  It  means  a  greater  exhibition  of  tenderness,  thoughtfulness,  and  gentle- 
ness in  our  social  intercourse;  it  means  a  greater  regard  for  orderliness,  neatness, 
and  beauty  in  our  surroundings.  A  tree  planted  needs  attention  and  care,  which 
can  not  be  bestowed  without  entering  into  the  general  habit  of  the  planter;  it  may 
need  a  box  to  protect  it;  the  shrub  or  bed  of  flowers  suggests  the  well-kept  lawn  or 
the  more  modest  grassplat;  and  these  in  turn  point  to  a  neat  fence,  a  clean  yard 
with  trim  walks,  a  painted  house,  and  within,  tidy  rooms,  decorated  walls,  pictures 
and  books,  good  cheer  and  comfort.  It  will  be  readily  admitted  that  these  things 
can  not  be,  without  atfecting  wholesomely  and  only  for  good  the  moral  tone  of  the 
family  life,  and,  through  it,  that  of  the  community. 

PLANTING  TREES  A  PATRIOTIC  DUTY. 

Not  less  interesting  and  pertinent  is  the  address  of  Dr.  J.  T.  Rothrock, 
State  commissioner  of  forestry  of  Pennsylvania,  to  the  public  schools 
of  Lancaster  on  Arbor  Day  of  last  year : 

Less  than  three. centuries  ago,  in  the  providence  of  God,  our  ancestors  fell  heirs  to 
a  land  which  was  not  only  well  watered  and  fertile,  but  well  wooded.  It  is  fair  to 
say  that  on  the  eastern  slope  of  the  continent  there  was  no  second  area  equal  in  size 
to  Pennsylvania  which  possessed  resources  so  varied  and  that  bid  fair  to  last  so  long. 
So  rich  was  our  inheritance  that  we  felt  we  could  never  come  to  want  or  see  the  end 
of  our  resources.  American  extravagance  has  become  a  byword  among  other  nations, 
and  Pennsylvania  is  in  no  respect  behind  others  in  the  sisterhood  of  States. 

But  already  practically  75  per  cent  of  our  State  is  destitute  of  real  forest  growth, 
and  to  meet  the  wants  of  a  rapidly  increasing  population  we  are  now  importing 
lumber.  Not  only  this,  but  from  about  an  eighth  of  the  land  which  we  have  cleared 
we  have  so  exhausted  the  fertility  that  it  can  no  longer  be  made  remunerative  in 
agriculture.  In  at  least  one  county  of  our  State  we  have  the  word  of  the  president 
judge  that  the  barren  hillsides  are  being  deserted  by  their  population  because  they 
can  no  longer  wring  a  living  from  the  impoverished  lands. 

Thus  far  mankind  has  derived  its  food  from  the  soil  or  the  water.  In  the  state- 
house  of  Massachusetts  there  hangs  a  figure  of  a  codfish,  to  indicate  that  from  the 
sea  that  great  Commonwealth  derives  a  large  part  of  its  support.  Our  waters  are 
practically  barren,  and  our  strength  must  come  from  the  soil.  I  desire  now  to  leave 
a  question  with  the  young  people  of  Lancaster.  It  is  this :  If  on  the  one  hand  we 
double  our  population  in  about  thirty  years,  and  if,  on  the  other  hand,  we  continue 
to  make  so  much  of  soil  poorer  every  year,  how  will  those  who  come  after  us  obtain 
a  living?  Bear  in  mind  that  when  you  reudel*  the  soil  incapable  of  producing  a 
crop  you  cut  off  the  head  of  the  State.  Thirty  years  and  more  ago  our  nation's  life 
was  in  danger.  From  the  hillsides  of  Pennsylvania  more  than  two  hundred  thou- 
sand brave  men  poured  down  to  save  the  country,  that  your  lives  might  be  peaceful, 
happy,  and  prosperous.  I  know  you  love  the  dear  old  flag  around  which  so  many  of 
us  rallied.  I  know  that  there  is  not  a  boy  or  girl  before  me  but  thinks  the  red,  white, 
and  blue  of  ''Old  Glory"  are  the  very  brightest  and  best  colors  that  fly  in  the 
breeze  of  any  land.  Its  ample  folds  mark  the  thousands  of  schoolhouses  where  you 
are  taught  to  become  good  men  and  women  and  patriotic  citizens.  But  you  are  now 
called  upon  to  save  the  State  from  wasting  its  strength,  and  from  becoming  weak 
and  poor,  when  it  should  be  strong  and  rich.     God  never  allowed  a  child  to  grow  up 


ARBOR   DAY ITS   HISTORY  AND    OBSERVANCE.  33 

to  be  a  citizen  without  providing  something  for  him  or  her  to  do  for  the  public  good. 
Every  citizen  shouhl  in  some  way  aid  in  making  every  acre  of  the  State  as  produc- 
tive as  it  can  be  made.  Of  all  things,  a  useless  soul  and  a  useless  acre  are  the  most 
useless.  I  call  upon  you  young  people  here,  who  are  thinking  already  what  you  will 
do  when  you  grow  up,  to  resolve  that  you  will  be  patriots,  and  help  make  the  land 
in  which  you  live  as  near  a  paradise  as  you  can.  You  will  be  wiser  if  you  begin  at 
once  to  do  some  good  thing.  Here  is  a  chance.  Every  tree  that  is  planted  helps  to 
save  water  for  the  uses  of  the  people.  It  helps  to  restrain  the  floods  which  destroy 
life  and  property.  It  helps  to  keep  the  air  in  pure  condition  for  you  and  your  asso- 
ciates.    It  helps  to  moderate  the  climate  so  that  crops  may  grow  and  fruits  mature. 

If,  then,  you  plant  a  tree,  you  increase  the  wealth  and  strength  of  the  Common- 
wealth, and  at  the  same  time  you  aid  in  husbanding  its  resources.  Is  not  this  a 
worthy  work?  But  it  is  so  small  a  thing,  you  may  say!  .  True,  but  life  is  made  up 
of  small  things.  How  many  really  great  things  can  anyone  do?  The  great  acts  of 
any  man's  life  are  few.    It  is  the  multitude  of  small  deeds  which  makes  life  important. 

Nebraska  was  once  almost  a  treeless  area.  Now  it  is  a  well-wooded  State.  This  is 
almost  entirely  due  to  the  Arbor  Day.  plan  ting  which  Secretary  Morton  started  a 
score  of  years  ago.  His  example  has  spread  from  State  to  State,  until  over  almost  the 
entire  Union  a  day  is  set  apart  every  year  for  the  purpose  of  tree  planting.  European 
countries  are  taking  up  with  the  idea.  It  has  sjiread  to  tbe  isles  of  the  ocean.  If 
we  except  Christmas  and  Easter,  there  is  probably  no  anniversary  more  widely  cele- 
brated than  Arbor  Day.  Of  course  the  date  must  vary  with  the  country.  In  our 
Southern  States,  February  22,  the  birthday  of  Washington,  is  often  selected  as 
Arbor  Day. 

I  desire  especially  to  call  attention  here  to  a  mistake  too  often  made  in  connection 
with  Arbor  Day:  This  is  the  planting  of  foreign  instead  of  native  trees.  It  is  now 
well  known  that  no  foreign  species  except  possibly  the  Eastern  plane  tree  is  so  long- 
lived  as  the  corresponding  native  species.  As  between  foreign  and  native  trees,  then, 
give  the  first  place  to  our  own  species.  In  the  country,  as  in  smaller  towns,  nothing 
is  better  than  our  white  oak,  a  native  elm,  or  a  sugar  maple.  Do  not  plant  the  sil- 
ver maple.  It  is  too  weak  to  support  its  own  enormous  growth.  It  must  be  cut 
back.  This  opens  the  way  for  decay,  and  just  when  your  tree  should  be  in  its  prime 
it  is  in  the  stage  of  decay. 

Reforms  mature  slowly.  See  with  what  infinite  persecution  the  emancipation 
problem  was  worked  out!  Before  our  land  became  in  deed  and  in  truth  ^'the  land 
of  the  free,"  every  hamlet  received  its  baptism  of  blood  and  every  citizen  felt  the 
drain  upon  his  finances. 

The  great  temperance  reform  has  grown  from  contempt  into  respectability,  and 
before  you  young  people  are  in  the  prime  of  life  you  will  see  under  restraint  the 
monster  of  intemperance,  which  brings  untold  agony  into  thousands  of  homes.  So 
it  is  with  the  forestry  problem.  We  are  now  passing  from  the  period  of  destruction 
to  the  period  of  restoration.  Hardly  a  State  in  the  Union  but  is  concerning  itself 
with  this  great  reform.  Pennsylvania  has  earned  a  first  place  as  a  pioneer  in  the 
movement.  In  my  travels  over  the  country  I  see  on  all  sides  the  signs  that  a  refor- 
mation is  at  hand.  When  I  was  a  lad  I  never  saw  or  heard  of  planting  a  tree  in  a 
school  yard.  Now,  in  the  remotest  parte  of  the  State,  I  see  growing  in  school  yards 
the  trees  under  whose  ample  branches  the  children  of  the  next  generation  Mall  play. 

I  look  on  the  hopeful  side  of  things.  The  world  has  constantly  been,  in  the  main, 
becoming  better  fitted  for  the  prosperity  and  comfort  of  men.  It  is  the  natural 
order  of  evolution.  It  is  not  too  late  to  restore  our  forests  on  land  where  nothing 
but  trees  will  grow.  It  is  not  too  late  to  make  our  roadsides,  our  school  yards,  our 
swamp  land,  and  our  barren  ridges  eloquent  witnesses  of  God's  willingness  to  help 
us  beautify  our  living  places,  and  ]ierpetuate  the  prosperity  of  onr  Commonwealth. 
You  may  never  command  armies,  or  thrill  a  listening  nation  by  yonr  eloquence;  but 
you  may  at  least,  each  one  of  you,  leave  a  thrifty,  growing  tree,  or  more  than  onO; 

10578 3 


34  ARBOR   DAY ITS   HISTORY   AND    OBSERVANCE. 

to  show  those  who  follow  that  you  were  unselfish  enough  to  labor  for  the  benefit  of 
posterity  that  you  may  never  see.  You  may  at  least  exemplify  the  noble  justice  of 
leaving  the  world  in  as  good  condition  for  the  prosperity  of  your  children  as  you 
found  it  for  yourselves.  All  this  you  may  do  by  simply  planting  a  tree,  which  will 
grow  while  you  sleep  and  draw  its  strength  and  its  long  life  and  large  usefulness  from 
the  sunshine  and  the  storm,  costing  nothing,  "harming  no  one,  blessing  everyone, 
and  pleasing  God."    Will  you  do  it? 

Suppose  each  child  in  the  State  of  Pennsylvania  between  the  ages  of  5  and  17 
years  plants  a  tree  which  grows  to  a  mature  size.  Put  these  all  together  at  15  feet 
apart,  and  you  will  have  a  forest  of  11|^  square  miles.  That  means  7,360  acres  of  for- 
est— good,  productive  forest.  Each  acre  of  such  forest  can,  in  the  growing  season, 
give  back  to  the  air  about  14,500  tons  of  water  by  evaporation  or  transpiration.  In 
other  words,  as  the  result  of  planting  one  tree  for  ejich  school  child  of  to-day  there 
might  be  distilled  back  into  our  air,  from  this  eleven  and  more  square  miles  of  forest 
area  each  growing  season,  106,720,000  tons  of  water. 

Now  I  want  to  ask  you  if  you  know  what  that  water  does  up  in  the  sky.  It 
destroys  the  frost  which  kills  your  crops.  That  is,  each  one  of  you  here  who  plants 
a  long-lived  tree  of  a  kind  that  may  grow  to  large  proportions,  will,  when  it  has  grown 
to  middle  size,  be  placing  away  up  there  in  the  sky  over  seventy  tons  of  water  each 
year,  which  is  to  help  protect  and  produce  the  grain  on  which  your  grandchildren 
will  live.  Indeed,  it  may  be,  you  will  find  when  you  are  done  with  earth  that  you 
have  placed  something  in  the  sky  of  more  importance  still.  You  know  that  to  **  love 
your  neighbor  "  is  half  of  the  Divine  command.  Will  you  plant  a  tree  somewhere 
this  year? 

SCHOOLS  OF  AGRICULTURE  AND  HORTICULTURE. 

The  relation  of  Arbor  Day  to 
agriculture  and  horticulture  is 
well  set  forth  by  Hon.  Charles  R. 
Skinner,  State  superintendent  of 
schools,  New  York : 

There  is  a  practical  as  well  as  a  senti- 
mental side  to  Arbor  Day.  It  had  its 
inception  in  a  commendable  movement 
looking  to  the  protection  of  our  forest 
trees,  and  what  may  be  called  the  making 
of  new  forests  on  the  vast  plains  of  the 
West.  The  sentimental  feature  attached 
to  its  observance  has  been  in  the  develop- 
ment of  a  love  for  Nature  and  her  won- 
derful works,  and  in  the  encouragement 
to  delightful  study  of  trees,  plants,  flow- 
ers, and  birds.  There  is  no  doubt  that  in  hundreds  of  thousands  of  the  children 
of  our  country  there  has  been  awakened  a  deep  interest  in  the  attractive  study  of 
how  plants  grow,  of  the  use  and  abuse  of  trees,  and  of  the  relations  which  birds 
and  flowers  bear  to  the  problem  of  Nature  and  to  human  happiness.  A  child  who 
learns  to  love  trees  and  flowers  and  who  derives  happiness  from  them  can  never  go 
entirely  wrong.  The  whole  subject  tends  to  a  closer  study  of  Nature  in  ail  who 
have  a  love  for  growing  things.  This  study  of  Nature  can  be  turned  to  practical 
use,  and  be  made  of  lasting  benefit  to  many  thousands  of  the  world's  workers, 
especially  to  those  whose  privilege  it  is  to  till  the  soil — and  from  the  farms  to  feed 
the  world.  There  is  a  lack  of  knowledge  of  the  scientific  principles  of  agriculture. 
This  lack  increases  manual  labor  without  increasing  results  or  happiness.     How  to 


ARBOR    DAY ITS    HISTORY    AND    OBSERVANCE. 


35 


make  farming  pleasaut  and  profitable,  how  to  increase  its  attractions,  how  to  keep 
the  hoys  on  the  farm  are  some  of  the  problems  of  our  times.  There  are  mysteries  of 
Nature  which  a  well-educated  agriculturist  can  solve  with  profit  and  pleasure.  Ten 
acres  scientifically  tended  can  be  made  as  profitable  with  less  labor  as  one  hundred 
acres  carelessly  cultivated.  The  brain  should  relieve  the  hand.  Education  should 
abolish  drudgery.     There  is  profit  as  well  as  poetry  in  "a  little  farm  well  tilled." 

Then  let  us  make  a  ])lace  in  our  educational  systetu  for  schools  of  agriculture  and 
horticulture.     Our  agricultural  colleges  have  their  places  in  the  system,  but  they 


are  beyond  the  reach  and  above  the  heads  of  a  great  majority  of  the  boys  who  are 
to  be  the  farmers  of  the  future.  While  our  common  schools  are  laying  the  founda- 
tions of  an  all-around  education,  let  us  give  our  children  practical  lessons  which 
will  help  on  the  farm.  We  may  not  teach  all  our  boys  to  be  farmers,  but  we  may 
give  those  who  go  from  the  schools  back  to  the  farms  a  knowledge  which  shall  arouse 
a  love  and  an  enthusiasm  for  agricultural  pursuits  which  they  could  never  other- 
wise obtain.  This  love  would  do  more  than  any  other  influence  to  keep  our  boys  on 
the  farms.  It  is  the  child  who  shows  most  enthusiasm  in  study  and  in  play.  Then 
let  us  teach  our  children  the  simple  lessons  in  botany,  chemistry,  geology,  and 


36  ARBOR   DAY ITS    HISTORY    AND    OBSERVANCE. 

zoology,  with  which  they  may  combine  the  study  of  the  habits  of  plants  and  trees, 
how  they  grow  and  develop ;  the  study  of  birds,  which  are  the  friends  and  not  the 
enemies  of  mankind;  the  study  of  the  composition  of  soils,  the  chemistry  of  fer- 
tilizers, the  needs  of  grasses  and  grains,  and  the  harm  of  noxious  weeds.  Let  them 
learn  that  what  is  taken  from  the  ground  must  be  paid  back;  that  there  is  a  recip- 
rocal relation  between  the  soil  and  the  fertilizer,  as  between  the  giver  and  receiver. 
How  to  graft,  how  to  plant  and  transplant,  how  to  save  and  how  to  prune,  how  to 
sow  and  how  to  reap,  are  among  the  things  which  should  be  taught.  Give  us  courses 
in  the  common  schools  for  the  boys  and  girls  who  want  them,  which  shall  teach 
some  of  the  ])leasant  things  connected  with  farming.  Teach  also  that  it  costs  no 
more  to  produce  a  pound  of  good  butter  or  cheese  than  a  poor  one.  Give  us  a  gar- 
den by  the  schoolhouse  where  the  lessons  of  Arbor  Day  can  be  practically  illustrated, 
where  children  can  plajit  and  water,  where  they  can  see  things  grow,  see  nature 
develop,  see  life  in  soil  and  plants.  France  is  doing  much  in  this  direction,  and 
Canada  is  agitating  the  question.     Arbor  Day  should  give  us  educated  farmers. 


ENCOURAGING  WORDS  FOR  ARBOR  DAY. 

Beneficent  influence  of  Arhor  Day. — It  must  be  borne 
in  mind  that  Arbor  Day  is  not  a  holiday,  but  simply 
a  particular  day  set  apart  for  special  instruction  in  all 
that  pertains  to  the  most  useful  and  beautiful  of  the 
kingdoms.  It  would  not  be  amiss  if  a  day  were  given 
to  each  of  the  other  kingdoms,  the  animal  and  the  min- 
eral, for  the  same  purpose.  That  Arbor  Day  has  been 
of  incalculable  value,  jesthetically  and  ethically,  is  no 
longer  doubted ;  and,  with  this  generation,  trees  around 
a  schoolhouse  are  not  looked  upon  as  a  source  of  supply 
for  convenient  instruments  to  maintain  discipline,  as 
they  probably  were  a  decade  or  two  ago.  The  tandalism  that  begins  with  cutting 
and  marring  the  school  desks  and  destroying  school  shrubbery  has  disappeared, 
which  is  one  of  the  innumerable  arguments  in  favor  of  its  beneficent  influence  upon 
the  malicious  passions  of  the  young. 

The  lessons  learned  about  trees,  plants,  and  flowers  since  the  institution  of  Arbor 
Day  has  caused  us  to  observe  more  closely  and  to  love  more  ardently  these  gifts  of 
nature.  Our  greatest  i>oct8  and  statesmen  have  written  reverently  of  these  treasures, 
and  spoken  with  sublime  veneration  and  patriotic  fervor  about  those  of  a  historic 
reputation.  The  literature  associated  with  this  kingdom  excels  all  others  in  purity 
and  devontness,  and  millions  of  the  present  school  generation  will  recall  these  days 
as  the  one  green,  glowing  oasis  in  a  long  life.  Henry  Thoreau  said:  "The  intellect 
of  most  men  is  barren.  It  is  the  raovings  of  the  soul  with  nature  that  makes  the  intel- 
lect fruitful,  that  gives  birth  to  imagination."— John  Terhune,  superintendent,  Ber- 
gen County,  N.  J. 

Not  merely  a  day  for  tree  planting  .—When  this  day  was  first  appointed  I  felt  that  it 
was  not  intended  for  us.  We  did  not  need  it.  Trees  were  abundant  on  our  streets 
and  around  our  houses.  But  since  we  have  kept  it,  as  we  have  for  the  past  two 
years,  I  have  had  ray  eyes  opened  to  its  importance.  We  may  have  trees  in  abun- 
dance, but  there  is  a  lesson  to  be  taught  on  this  day  that  can  not  be  put  too  strongly 
before  our  children.  It  is  a  day  when  we  should  strive  through  general  exercises, 
and  by  plain  talks  from  the  teachers,  committeemen,  and  others  who  may  be  induced 
to  address  the  children,  to  impress  upon  them  a  love  of  the  beautiful.     Remember 


ARBOR    DAY ITS    HISTORY    AND    OBSERVANCE.  37 

that  our  schools  are  expected  to  elevate,  to  make  better  citizeus,  ami  not  simply  to 
cram  the  pupils'  heads  full  of  a  certain  amount  of  knowledge,  in  order  that  they  may 
be  able  to  make  money  a  little  easier  when  they  grow  up.  We  should  teach  them  to 
do  all  in  their  power  to  beautify  their  homes;  also  aid  them  in  adorning  their  school- 
rooms. Let  these  two  places  be  made  most  attractive  and  the  work  of  the  schoolroom 
will  be  wonderfully  advanced. 

The  saloon  perceives  the  importance  of  this  idea;  witness  the  magnificence  of 
some  of  the  city  saloons.  Let  us  counteract  this  by  doing  what  we  can  to  induce 
the  child  to  make  his  home  the  most  attractive  place  in  the  world. 

A  little  ingenuity  will  work  wonders.  The  home  of  the  poor  is  often  far  pleasanter 
than  the  mansion;  so  it  does  not  all  depend  on  the  amount  of  money  expended. 

The  same  effort  should  be  made  to  make  the  schoolroom  attractive.  To  the  effect 
of  this  I  called  your  attention  several  years  ago  when  the  uugraded  school  was 
removed  from  the  room  in  the  old  brick  schoolhouse  to  the  pleasant  quarters  in  the 
Byfield  building.  What  had  been  an  unruly  school,  and  one  that  every  child  dreaded 
to  attend,  became  instantly  a  model  school  and  one  that  was  very  popular.  This  is 
a  practical  illustration  that  we  should  remember.  We  may  say  that  it  is  all  non- 
sense; that  it  makes  no  difference  what  kind  of  a  room  is  used  for  a  school.  Here 
we  see  most  conclusively  that  it  does. — J.  P.  Reynolds. 

Beneficial  results  of  Arbor  Day.— Arbor  Day  was  observed  this  year  in  all  the  schools 
according  to  the  x^rogramme  prepared  by  the  commissioner  of  public  schools.  At 
nearly  all  the  schools  a  tree,  or  vine,  or  shrub  was  planted  on  or  near  the  school 
grounds.  The  encouragement  of  this  custom  will  give  to  each  class  a  permanent 
possession  in  the  school  grounds,  increase  their  interest  in  the  school  in  time  to  come, 
and  be  a  promoter  of  pleasant  memories  of  school  life. 

The  presence  of  trees  on  or  near  the  school  grounds  will  attract  the  birds,  and 
these  by  their  presence  will  aid  the  teachers  in  inculcating  the  principles  and  prac- 
tices of  the  Society  for  the  Prevention  of  Cruelty  to  Animals.  In  one  school  this 
year  attention  and  interest  have  been  concentrated  upon  a  pairof  robins  which  built 
their  nest  in  a  tree  in  the  yard  and  in  sight  from  the  upper  windows  of  the  school- 
house. — W.  A.  Briggs,  superintendent. 

Indirect  value. — The  indirect  value  of  Arbor  Day  and  the  opportunity  it  affords  for 
moral  instruction  are  appreciated  by  the  teachers,  whose  first  thought  is  apt  to  be 
one  of  regret  for  any  interruption  of  regular  work. — T.  O.  Draper,  superintendent. 

A  beautiful  cuftom.—  Another  custom  which  we  urge  all  of  our  schools  to  adopt  is 
the  careful  observance  of,  and  participation  in,  the  exercises  of  Arbor  Day,  a  custom 
beautiful,  simple,  useful. — F.  B.  Gifford,  clerk. 

Gaining  attention. — The  subject  of  Arbor  Day  is  gaining  the  attention  of  the  teach- 
ers and  pupils  more  than  formerly,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  it  will  continue.  If  properly 
carried  out  it  will  cause  the  schoolhouse  grounds  to  become  more  attractive  to  the 
children.  It  does  seem  as  if  the  grounds  around  the  schoolhouses  of  our  country, 
where  congregate  some  thirteen  millions  of  pupils,  should  receive  as  much  attention 
as  the  grounds  around  the  homes,  for  nothing  can  exert  more  influence  in  creating  a 
love  for  the  beautiful  in  the  minds  of  the  rising  generation. — C.  J.  Greene,  superin- 
tendent. 

Not  a  mere  holidai/. —  Trees  everywhere  exert  a  controlling  moral  influence.  They 
make  home  pleasanter,  as  we  know  and  feel  in  our  everyday  existence.  When  a  boy 
leaves  the  home  of  his  childhood  his  heart,  in  whatever  land  it  beats,  shall,  like 
the  "seashell  far  from  its  ocean  bed,  retain  some  faint  whisper  of  its  early  dwell- 
ing place."  In  after  years  the  sight  of  home  and  school  grounds,  beautified  and 
improved,  will  afiord  gladness  and  pleasure  as  season  follows  season. — D.  R.  Adams, 
superintendent. 


38  ARBOR    DAY ITS    HISTORY   AND    OBSERVANCE. 

Practical  use  of  the  day. — Arbor  Day  and  the  preparation  for  it  served  to  inculcate 
love  for  the  whole  realm  of  the  vegetable  world  and  much  knowledge  of  tree  and 
plant  life.  The  schools  also,  after  appropriate  and  interesting  exercises  in  their 
respective  rooms,  came  together  at  the  Massasoit  spring  on  Baker  street,  and  planted 
a  tree  in  memory  of  Massasoit.  It  might  be  well  another  year  for  the  schools  each 
to  plant  a  tree  on  some  treeless  street, — A.  E.  Carpenter,  superintendent. 

Among  our  monumental  institutions. — One  of  the  pleasing  evidences  of  improvement 
in  society  and  the  cultivation  of  a  higher  public  taste  is  found  in  the  establishment 
of  Arbor  Day.  This  interesting  anniversary  has  not  only  found  a  place  among  the 
monumental  institutions  of  our  country,  but  it  has  met  with  very  general  and  cor- 
dial approbation  and  support.  It  has  its  place  in  the  calendar  of  our  colleges,  and 
it  becomes  an  educational  agency  to  all  the  youth  of  the  land  by  its  relation  to  our 
common  schools.  It  has  the  support  of  no  small  number  of  enthusiastic  advocates 
who  promote  its  observance  and  press  its  claims  upon  the  public  attention,  and 
build  up  around  it  its  own  peculiar  and  interesting  literature. 

As  the  years  go  by  and  the  trees  now  newly  planted  expand  themselves  outward 
and  rear  themselves  upward  toward  the  sky,  displaying  their  grand  and  majestic 
proportions,  so  the  traditions  and  stories  that  gather  round  them  and  the  day  that 
gave  them  their  place  and  their  importance  grow  to  be  a  living  romance,  blooming 
with  elevating  sentiment  and  bearing  the  fruitage  of  cherished  associations. 

When  from  the  youth  and  childhood  of  the  present  proceed  the  names  tl-at  attain 
to  greatness  and  to  fame,  till  all  lands  are  filled  with  their  renown,  then  this  anni- 
versary will  bring  together  assemblages  at  the  plantings  of  to-daj^  to  tell  over  with 
endless  interest  the  stories  of  early  struggles  and  victories,  and  so  inspire  to  noble 
ambitions  and  aims  the  generations  that  are  to  follow. — Rev.  J.  Young. 


TREES  AND  SCHOOLS. 

If  any  persons  should  be  peculiarly  inter- 
ested in  trees  it  would  seem  to  be  those  who 
are  at  school  and  who  are  especially  engaged 
in  the  use  of  books,  for  the  word  book  is  the 
same  as  the  old  English  or  Anglo-Saxon  word 
hoc,  which  means  a  beech  tree.  The  German 
l)ucli^  book,  is  almost  the  same  as  hucJie,  beech; 
and  substantially  similar  words  are  found  in 
the  Danish,  Icelandic,  and  Gothic  languages, 
^  because  before  the  invention  of  printing  the  books  of 
the  i)eople  speaking  these  languages  were  written  commonly 
on  pieces  of  the  bark  or  wood  of  the  beech  trees. 
Then  those  who  are  studying  Latin  know  that  the  word  liber  means 
both  bark  aud  book,  which  points  to  a  similar  usage.  And  those  who 
have  entered  upon  the  study  of  the  Greek  language  have  learned  that 
Mblos,  which  means  book,  also  means  the  inner  bark  of  the  papyrus 
plant,  because  the  old  Egyptians  used  to  write  upon  its  smooth  and 
white  surface.    From  the  name  of  this  plant  again  comes  directly  and 


ARBOR   DAY — ITS   HISTORY   AND   OBSERVANCE.  39 

easily  our  word  paper,  while  to  go  back  to  liber,  we  have  from  that  our 
word  library,  or  a  collection  of  books,  and  from  biblos  again  our  word 
Bible,  or  the  book  of  books.  And  now  our  books  are  often  literally 
made  of  the  trees.  Only  instead  of  taking  chips  or  blocks  of  the 
beech  tree  to  write  upon,  as  our  ancestors  did,  we  grind  the  trees  up 
into  pulp,  and  having  spread  it  out  into  thin  sheets,  the  printer  then 
prints  ui)on  them  lessons  of  geography  or  arithmetic  or  history,  and  lo, 
the  beech  tree  and  other  trees  also  come  into  the  school  room  to  help 
us  in  our  studies.  Every  time  also  that  we  turn  the  leaves  in  our  books 
we  are  reminded  of  the  trees,  which  have  given  us  the  word. 

And  then  the  word  academy  causes  us  to  think  of  the  trees,  for  it 
points  us  back  to  that  celebrated  school  which  Plato,  the  Greek  phi- 
losopher, taught  in  the  grove  of  Academus.  It  was  a  school  among 
the  trees.  It  was  as  he  walked  with  his  pupils  under  the  branches 
of  the  trees  that  he  taught  thaSe  lessons  of  wisdom  which  have  been 
the  delight  of  scholars  down  to  our  own  time. 

Fitly,  then,  are  the  pupils  in  our  schools  invited  to  take  part  in  the 
observance  of  Arbor  Day,  and  if  there  is  any  spot  x^eculiarly  approi)ri- 
ate  for  the  planting  of  trees  on  such  an  occasion  it  is  that  where  chil- 
dren assemble  for  instruction,  that  thereby  they  may  have  around  them 
tlie  beauty  and  i)leasantness  which  trees  afford  and  every  school  place 
may  become  another  ^' grove  of  Academe." 


TREES  AS  LIVING  THINGS. 

AH  things  in  the  world  may  be  divided  into  two 

classes,  things  which  have  hfe  and  things  which  are 

without  life.     What  life  is  we  do  not  know.     We 

know  only  its  effects — what  it  does.    We  can 

neither  see  it  nor  feel  it.     We  can  not  perceive 

it  by  any  of  our  senses. 

We  recognize  life  most  commonly  as  something 
which  produces  motion.  So  we  say  an  animal  is 
alive  or  has  life,  because  we  see  it  move.  The  stone 
is  not  alive;  it  has  no  motion.  It  does  not  change 
its  shape  or  color.  It  looks  to  day  as  it  did  years 
ago;  it  is  no  larger  now  than  it  was  then.  So  of  a  piece  of 
iron  or  any  other  metal.  But  the  animal  moves  about;  it 
changes  its  shape;  it  increases  in  size;  it  grows,  as  we  say.  From  a 
small  and  very  feeble  thing  it  becomes  large  and  strong.  It  is  because 
it  is  a  living  thing  or  has  life  that  it  grows.  The  life  in  it  has  the 
power  of  laying  hold  of  other  things  and  building  them  up  into  the 
body  of  the  animal,  so  that  it  enlarges  until  it  has  reached  the  size  which 


40  ARBOR    DAY ITS    HISTORY   AND    OBSERVANCE. 

belongs  to  it.  So  the  life  or  life  priuciple  in  us  builds  up  our  bodies 
little  by  little,  and  day  by  day,  from  our  infancy,  until  we  are  grown- up 
men  and  women. 

Now,  the  trees  are  living  things  like  ourselves,  and  this  gives  them 
special  interest  for  us.  Living  things  have  what  we  call  organs,  or 
instruments  by  means  of  which  the  life  or  life  principle  acts  and  per- 
forms its  work.  So  the  trees  have  many  such  organs  as  we  have,  and 
thereby  resemble  us.  They  have  organs  by  which  they  take  in  food, 
they  have  lungs  by  which  they  breathe,  and  they  have  organs  of 
digestion  and  a  circulatory  apparatus,  by  which  their  food  is  prepared 
and  carried  to  all  parts  of  them  and  causes  them  to  grow  and  reach 
their  perfection. 

The  trees  can  not  move  about  from  place  to  place,  as  we  and  most 
animals  do.  They  would  not  be  what  they  were  meant  to  be  nor  of 
such  use  to  us  as  they  now  are  if  they  could.  But  they  are  none  the 
less  alive  although  they  remain  in  the  same  place  all  the  time.  There 
are  some  animals,  such  as  the  oyster,  for  example,  which  never  move 
about.  There  are  also  some  human  beings  who,  by  accident  or  other- 
wise, have  been  deprived  of  the  power  to  walk  or  to  move  freely, 
who  yet  are  as  truly  alive  as  any.  There  are  many  plants  also  that 
have  a  limited  power  of  motion  which  shows  a  close  resemblance  to 
the  animals  in  this  respect,  as  well  as  in  others  which  have  been  men- 
tioned. There  are  what  we  call  the  climbing  plants,  which  climb  trees 
or  walls  just  as  truly  as  boys  often  do.  Most  plants  love  the  liglit 
and  sunshine,  and  these  climbing  plants  seem  to  climb  up  for  the  pur- 
pose of  getting  out  of  the  shade  of  other  plants  and  securing  to  them- 
selves the  needed  light.  So  they  lay  hold  of  any  upright  object  near 
them,  a  stick  or  a  tree,  and  winding  around  it  or  fastening  their 
tendrils  to  it,  climb  uj).  Here  there  is  motion  all  the  time,  and  it 
can  be  seen  very  easily,  especially  when  such  a  climber  as  the 
morning-glory  fastens  upon  a  short  support.  When  it  gets  to  the  top 
of  this  it  is  not  satisfied,  but  wants  to  go  higher;  so  you  may  see  it 
reaching  out  sideways  and  feeling  around  to  find  a  new  support,  and 
it  will  sweep  entirely  around  a  circle,  from  right  to  left  or  from  left  to 
right,  in  order  to  find  something  to.  lay  hold  of  by  which  it  may  rise 
still  farther. 

Then  there  are  plants,  like  the  Virginia  creeper  and  the  Japanese  and 
English  ivies,  which  climb  walls  or  other  objects  by  means  of  tendrils, 
which  they  stretch  out  like  arms,  and  which  sometimes  have  at  their 
ends  little  disks  like  the  suckers  which  boys  make  out  of  leather  and 
with  which  they  lift  stones  and  other  things.  These  disks  are  like  so 
many  hands,  by  means  of  which  the  plants  climb  up  and  hold  them- 
selves firmly  where  they  can  have  the  light  which  they  need.  If  you 
try  to  detach  one  of  these  disks  from  the  object  to  which  it  has  fas- 
tened itself  you  will  find  it  quite  difficult  to  do  so.    The  Venus's  flytrap 


ARBOR   DAY ITS   HISTORY   AND    OBSERVANCE.  41 

(Bionma  muscipida)  shows  motion  in  a  different  way.  It  has  at  the 
end  of  its  leaves  an  expansion  like  two  leaves  of  a  book  ready  to  fold 
together,  or  like  the  shells  of  a  clam.  Around  the  margin  of  these 
leaves  are  bristles,  with  other  more  delicate  ones  in  the  center.  When 
an  insect  alights  on  the  open  leaves  and  touches  the  central  bristles, 
the  leaves  shut  together  so  quickly  that  it  is  caught  and  held  there  till 
it  dies.  Other  plants  show  motion  in  different  ways.  The  trees  also 
have  motions  independent  of  those  which  are  occasioned  by  the  wind 
or  any  external  force.  The  locust  tree  and  some  others,  for  instance, 
fold  up  their  leaves  at  night  as  though  preparing  to  sleep,  and  spread 
them  open  again  in  the  morning.  Some  move  their  leaves  in  a  different 
manner.  In  all  trees,  also,  there  is  in  the  roots  a  constant  movement, 
at  least  during  the  growing  season  of  the  year.  At  the  very  beginning 
of  its  life  the  root  as  it  sprouts  from  the  seed  insists  upon  going  down- 
ward into  the  earth.  Turn  the  sprouting  acorn  so  that  its  root  or  radi- 
cle shall  point  upward  and  very  soon  it  will  turn  and  double  upon  itself, 
if  necessary,  in  order  to  take  a  downward  course,  and  though  you  turn 
it  again  and  again,  it  will  persist  in  its  determination  and  die  if  neces- 
sary rather  than  give  up  the  struggle.  So  when  a  tree  is  established 
and  growing,  though  its  stem  must  remain  in  the  same  place,  its  roots 
are  all  the  while  pushing  out  in  various  directions,  winding  around 
obstacles  of  one  kind  and  another  in  pursuit  of  moisture  and  nourish- 
ment and  making  their  way  steadily  on,  so  that  nothing  will  so  well 
describe  the  character  of  that  part  of  the  tree  which  is  under  ground 
as  to  say  it  is  in  a  state  of  motion.  Darwin,  the  eminent  naturalist, 
goes  so  far  as  to  claim  that  all  the  growing  parts  of  plants,  above  as 
well  as  below  ground,  manifest  voluntary  motion,  describing  circles  or 
circular  spirals  continually,  ^'circumnutating,"  as  he  calls  this  move- 
ment. ^'  If  we  look,'^  he  says,  "for  instance,  at  a  great  acacia  tree,  we 
may  feel  assured  that  every  one  of  the  innumerable  growing  shoots  is 
constantly  describing  small  ellipses,  as  is  each  petiole,  subpetiole,  and 
leaflet."  1 

The  action  of  the  life  principle  in  the  trees  also  often  manifests  aston- 
ishing force.  Darwin  found  that  the  transverse  growth  of  the  radicle 
of  a  sprouting  bean  was  able  to  displace  a  weight  of  3  pounds  4  ounces 
in  one  case  and  one  of  8  pounds  8  ounces  in  another.  One  can  hardly 
walk  where  trees  are  growing  among  rocks  without  seeing  instances  of 
the  splitting  asunder  of  great  masses  of  them  by  the  growth  of  the 
tree  roots  which  have  gained  entrance  into  tl^eir  crevices  when  small, 
and  in  growing  have  expanded  with  irresistible  force.  So,  also,  it  is  a 
common  thing  to  see  the  walls  of  buildings  disturbed  and  much  injured 
by  the  roots  of  trees  growing  near  them.  Experiments  made  by 
Professor  Clark,  at  Amherst  College,  led  him  to  think  that  the  force 
exerted  by  a  squajSh  in  growing  was  equal  to  about  5,000  pounds.    Thus 

1  Power  of  Movement  iu  Plants, 


42  ARBOR    DAY ITS    HISTORY    AND    OBSERVANCE. 

trees  show  that  they  are  living  things  like  us  by  having  voluntary 
motion  and  exerting  power. 

Trees  resemble  us  also  as  living  things,  and  still  more  wonderfully, 
perhaps,  in  their  choice  of  food.  They  can  take  food  only  when  it  is  in 
a  liquid  or  fluid  state.  They  can  not  take  any  solid  food,  though  the 
particles  be  ever  so  small.  Nor  do  all  trees  make  use  of  the  same  things 
for  food.  As  they  differ  from  one  another  in  kind,  so  they  require  dif- 
ferent kinds  of  food  material  in  order  to  make  them  what  they  are.  Or 
they  require  the  various  articles  of  food. in  different  jiroportions  one 
from  another.  They  seem  to  have  their  preferences,  their  likes  and  dis- 
likes about  food,  very  much  as  we  do.  So,  when  different  kinds  of  trees 
are  growing  together,  each  selects  from  the  ground  the  food  or  the  dif- 
ferent kinds  of  food  which  will  be  most  promotive  of  its  growth.  In  this 
respect  the  trees  do  even  better  than  we  do,  for  they  never  take  what 
is  not  good  for  them.  The  oak  takes  what  will  be  best  for  it,  and  the 
maple  what  will  build  it  up  as  a  maple,  and  so  of  every  other  tree,  and 
if  the  proper  food  does  not  happen  to  be  where  the  tree  is  planted, 
though  there  may  be  other  food  in  abundance,  it  will  not  become 
large  and  strong.  There  is  hardly  anything  more  wonderful  than  this 
instinct  of  trees  by  which  they  choose  their  food  so  unerringly,  and 
the  great  effort  which  they  seem  to  make  sometimes  in  order  to  get 
the  food  they  want.  While  they  can  not  move  from  j^lace  to  place,  as 
as  most  animals  can,  because  they  are  fixed  to  one  spot,  though  some 
of  the  lower  order  of  plants  move  about  as  freely  as  animals,  they 
often  send  their  roots  long  distances  and  over  great  obstacles  in  search 
of  what  will  nourish  them.  Darwin,  speaking  of  the  motion  of  the 
root-tips  of  plants,  says : 

^'It  is  hardly  an  exaggeration  to  say  that  the  tip  of  the  radicle,  thus 
endowed  and  having  the  power  of  directing  the  movements  of  the 
adjoining  parts,  acts  like  the  brain  of  one  of  the  lower  animals;  the 
brain  being  seated  within  the  anterior  end  of  the  body,  receiving 
impressions  from  the  sense  organs,  and  directing  the  several  move- 
ments."^ 

Such  manifestations  of  life  in  the  trees  are  very  interesting.  They 
are  enough  to  make  us  feel  that  they  are  like  us  in  many  respects  and 
to  excite  in  us  a  sense  of  companionship  with  them,  and  we  can  hardly 
wonder  that  some  people  have  imagined  that  living  creatures  dwelt  in 
the  trees  and  i)eopled  the  woods  with  nymphs,  with  dryads  and  hama- 
dryads, or  that  in  their  superstition  some  have  even  worshij^ped  trees. 
If  we  had  more  of  that  fancy  of  the  old  Greeks,  that  when  a  tree  was 
wounded  the  nymph  who  dwelt  in  it  was  hurt  or  grieved,  we  should, 
perhaps,  treat  the  trees  around  us  with  more  care  and  have  a  tenderer 
feeling  in  respect  to  them. 


'  Power  of  Movement  in  Plants. 


ARBOR    DAY ITS    HISTORY    AND    OBSERVANCE. 


43 


TREES  IN  MASSES— FORESTS. 


•■n:^-s^ 


Interesting  as  trees  are,  considered 
singly,  admirable  for  their  beauty,  every 
leaf  a  worthy  object  of  study,  we  do  not 
know  their  value  and  importance  until 
Ave  contemplate  them  in  masses,  or  as 
forests.  The  single  tree  on  the  lawn  or 
by  the  roadside  may  be  more  beautiful 
and  excite  our  admiration  more  than  any 
to  be  found  in  the  forest,  because,  having 
abundant  space  and  light  and  air  on 
every  side,  it  has  developed  itself  sym- 
metrically and  to  the  full  perfection  of 
its  nature,  which  the  tree  in  the  forest, 
more  or  less  crowded  by  its  neighbors, 
can  not  do.  But  when  we  come  to  con- 
_  sider  the  usefulness  rather  than   the 

beauty  of  trees,  we  must  look  to  the 
forests,  those  great  masses  which  often  cover  whole  mountains  or  vast 
plains  with  their  continuous  stretches.  Let  us  notice,  therefore,  some 
of  the  uses  of  masses  of  trees,  or  the  importance  which  trees  have  when 
growing  together  in  large  numbers,  and  which  does  not  belong  to  the 
tree  when  considered  singly. 

In  the  first  place,  then,  it  is  from  the  forest  that  we  obtain  the  fuel 
by  which  principally  we  warm  our  houses  and  sustain  the  fires  in  most 
of  our  furnaces  and  factories.  It  is  from  the  forest  that  we  obtain  the 
timber  for  the  construction  of  our  houses,  our  ships,  our  railway  cars, 
and  the  track  upon  which  the  cars  are  borne  so  smoothly  and  safely. 
It  is  the  forests  which  supply  us  with  the  raw  material  that  is  wrought 
into  so  many  objects  of  usefulness  and  convenience.  Professor  Sargent, 
who  undertook  ten  years  ago  to  ascertain  the  condition  of  the  forests 
of  the  United  States,  estimated  the  yearly  value  of  the  lumber,  fuel, 
and  other  forest  products  at  that  time  as  more  than  $700,000,000.  Their 
value  is  now  at  least  $1,060,000,000,  a  sum  that  exceeds  the  value  of  our 
crops  of  wheat,  oats,  rye,  corn,  and  tobacco  taken  together,  and  is 
greater  than  tliat  of  all  our  exports,  and  more  than  fourteen  times  as 
great  as  the  produce  of  our  mines  of  silver  and  gold.  It  is  esti- 
mated that  we  consumed  last  year,  of  sawn  lumber  alone,  more  than 
3(>,000,000,000  square  or  superficial  feet.  But  such  figures  by  them- 
selves are  meaningless.  Let  us  consider,  then,  that  this  amount  of 
lumber  would  load  a  train  of  cars  sufficient  to  encircle  the  earth  at  the 
equator.  And  now,  if  we  add  to  the  sawn  lumber,  which  is  only  a 
small  part  of  the  total  produce  of  the  forests,  the  timber,  the  railroad 
ties,  the  telegraph  poles,  the  posts  for  fences,  and  the  wood  cut  for  fuel 


44  ARBOR    DAY ITS    HISTORY    AND    OBSERVANCE. 

and  for  mining  pnrposes,  we  wshall  have  a  train  100,000  miles  in  length,  or 
long  enough  to  reach  lour  times  around  the  globe.  The  weight  of  these 
forest  products  would  be  enough  to  load  480,000  ships  of  1,000  tons  each. 

When  we  see  thus  what  a  vast  amount  of  material  of  various  kinds 
is  taken  from  our  forests  every  year,  we  have  a  most  convincing  proof 
of  their  value.  We  see  at  a  glance  how  indispensable  they  are  to  our 
welfare,  how  many  industries  they  must  sustain,  how  many  comforts 
and  conveniences  they  must  provide  for  all. 

The  importance  of  the  forests  and  their  usefulness  to  us  may  be 
shown,  not  only  by  such  figures  as  we  havf  ^ust  given,  which  indicate 
their  total  product,  but  in  a  contrasted  way  by  considering  some  of 
what  may  be  called  the  nuthought-of  uses  of  the  forest,  because  they 
are  concerned  with  articles  individually  so  small  and  insignificant. 

A  toothpick,  for  instance,  is  a  little  thing,  the  merest  sliver  of  wood, 
yet  it  is  reported  that  one  factory  uses  10,000  cords  of  wood  annually  in 
the  production  of  these  splints. 

Shoe  pegs  are  small  affairs,  yet  a  single  factory  sends  40,000  bushels 
of  them  to  Europe  yearly,  besides  what  it  disposes  of  at  home. 

A  spool  is  of  small  account  to  us  when  emptied  of  the  thread  which 
has  been  wound  upon  it,  yet  there  are  several  factories  which  use  each 
from  1,800  to  3,500  cords  of  wood  every  year  in  making  these  little  arti- 
cles, and  in  one  factory  150  men  are  said  to  be  employed  in  their  man- 
ufi\cture.  Thousands  of  acres  of  birch  trees  have  been  bought  at  one 
time  by  some  of  our  thread  manufacturing  companies,  for  the  sole  pur- 
pose of  securing  a  supply  of  spools. 

Who  thinks  much  of  the  little  friction  match,  as  he  uses  it  to  light  his 
lamp  or  his  fire  and  then  throws  it  away!  But  a  single  factory,  it  is 
said,  makes  60,000,000  of  these  little  things  every  day,  using  for  this 
purpose  12,000  square  feet  of  the  best  pine  timber. 

It  will  help  us  also  to  understand  how  much  we  are  indebted  to  the 
forests  when  we  find  that  we  consume  $12,000,000  worth  of  lumber  every 
year  for  the  packing-boxes  alone  which  are  required  simply  for  the 
transportation  of  our  various  commodities  from  the  producers  to  those 
who  use  them,  and  are  then  destroyed. 

In  what  has  been  said  now  about  the  products  of  the  forests  and  the 
benefits  which  they  confer  upon  us,  only  a  few  out  of  many  things  have 
been  mentioned.  Nothing  has  been  said  of  the  gums  and  resins  and 
spices  which  they  afford,  and  which  are  of  so  much  service  to  us.  What 
a  loss  would  it  be  to  us,  for  instance,  if  we  were  to  be  deprived  of  India 
rubber  and  gutta  perclia,  or  of  the  resin  and  turpentine  of  our  pine 
trees,  yielding  us  a  product  annually  valued  at  $8,000,000.  What  could 
take  their  place?  How  many  uses  we  have  for  them,  uses  many  of 
.which  seem  indispensable.  How  important  to  us  also  is  the  bark  of 
many  trees.  We  are  dependent  upon  it  for  our  leather.  We  can  not 
put  on  a  shoe  or  walk  the  streets  without  being  reminded  of  our  indebt- 
edness to  the  trees.  How  many  valuable  dyestuffs,  also,  and  how  many 
healing  medicines  are  obtained  from  the  bark,  as  well  as  from  the  leaves 


ARBOR   DAY ITS    HISTORY    AND    OBSERVANCE.  45 

and  other  parts  of  the  trees.  From  their  seeds  and  nuts,  also,  what 
valuable  products  are  derived.  In  some  countries  these  supply  a  large 
part  of  tlie  food  of  the  peo])le. 

But  the  forests  are  of  great  importance  to  us  not  only  on  account  of 
what  they  thus  yield  directly  for  our  use  and  comfort,  but  on  account 
of  their  relations  to  climate  and  health,  to  the  flow  of  streams,  and  to 
the  great  interests  of  agriculture,  commerce,  and  manufactures. 

By  reason  of  the  deep,  spongy  soil  formed  by  the  decay  of  their  leaves 
through  a  succession  of  years  the  forests  become  great  storehouses  of 
moisture.  The  rain  which  falls  upon  them,  instead  of  being  evaporated 
as  it  is  from  the  open  ground  or  flowing  oil'  at  once  into  the  streams, 
perha])s  with  destructive  violence,  sinks  into  the  soft  and  retentive 
soil,  from  which  it  flows  out  gradually  into  the  neighboring  runlets 
and  brooks  and  thence  into  the  larger  streams,  and  preserves  in  them 
an  equable  flow,  preventive  alike  of  flood  and  droughts.  It  is  esti- 
mated that  four-fifths  of  the  water  falling  on  wooded  areas  is  retained 
by  them,  whereas  on  those  which  are  without  timber  cover  only  one- 
fifth  is  retained,  the  other  four-fifths  rushing  off  in  torrents  and  often 
producing  disastrous  floods.  Through  many  an  under-ground  channel, 
also,  the  stored-up  water  of  the  forests  reappears  in  springs  in  the 
meadows  and  elsewhere,  to  slake  the  thirst  of  man  and  beast  and  give 
delight  to  old  and  young.  The  forests  are  thus  our  great  regulators  of 
water  supply.  They  also  protect  us  and  protect  our  crops,  our  fruits, 
and  our  flocks  from  the  violence  of  the  winds.  What  we  call  a  gentle 
wind  is  pleasant,  but  we  all  know  that  the  air  can  move  with  destructive 
violence.  We  all  know,  also,  how  grateful  is  the  shelter  which  a  grove 
or  even  a  narrow  belt  of  trees  affords  from  a  cold  wind.  When  the  air 
is  still  it  maybe  quite  cold  without  occasioning  us  much  discomfort; 
but  when  it  is  in  motion  it  absorbs  the  heat  of  our  bodies  more  rapidly 
by  the  more  frequent  contact  of  its  particles  with  them,  and  this  may  go 
so  far  as  to  be  very  painful  and,  perhaps,  destroy  life.  Kow,  the  forests,  or 
even  a  few  rows  of  trees,  greatly  check  the  movement  of  the  winds  and 
thus  protect  us  both  from  their  chilling  effect  and  their  violence.  They 
do  the  same  for  the  crops  in  the  farmer's  fields  and  the  fruits  in  his 
orchards.  They  prevent  them  from  being  withered  and  blasted  by  cold 
or  hot  winds  or  from  being  broken  down  by  their  force.  People,  in  some  of 
our  western  States  especially,  have  found  '^  shelter  belts,"  as  they  are  well 
called,  almost  indispensable  to  the  successful  cultivation  of  some  crops. 

By  equalizing  the  temperature  and  moisture  of  the  atmosphere  as 
they  do,  and  b}^  other  influences  which  they  exert,  the  forests  are  also 
promotive  of  health.  A  region  of  forests,  especially  if  it  is  elevated,  is  a 
healthful  region.  So  we  know  what  multitudes  resort  every  year  to  the 
White  Mountains  of  New  Hampshire,  and  to  the  Adirondacks  and  the 
Catskills,  or  to  the  great  forest  regions  of  the  South  or  of  the  Kocky 
Mountains,  and  how  beneficial  to  health  they  find  them. 

In  whatever  aspect,  then,  we  contemplate  the  forests  we  see  that  they 
are  of  the  greatest  value  to  us. 


46 


ARBOR    DAY ITS    HISTORY    AND    OBSERVANCE. 


TREES  IN  THEIR  LEAFLESS  STATE. 


As  the  season  for  Arbor  J3ay  and 
tree  planting  comes  on,  just  before  tlie 
buds  begin  to  swell  and  are  getting 
ready  to  cover  the  trees  with  a  fresh 
mantle  of  leaves,  it  is  well — as  it  is  also 
when  the  leaves  have  fallen  from  the 
trees  in  autumn — to  give  attention  to 
the  bare  trees  and  notice  the  character- 
istic forms  of  the  various  species,  the 
manner  in  which  their  branches  are 
developed  and  arranged  among  them- 
selves, for  a  knowledge  of  these  things 
will  often  enable  one  to  distinguish  the 
,^)^,^'   '  different  kinds  of  trees   more  readily 

and  certainly  than  by  any  other  means. 
The  foliage  often  serves  as  an  obscuring  veil,  concealing,  in  part,  at 
least,  the  individuality  and  the  x)eculiarities  of  the  trees.  But  if  one 
is  familiar  with  their  forms  of  growth — their  skeleton  anatomy,  so  to 
speak — he  will  recognize  common  trees  at  once  with  only  a  partial  view 
of  them. 

Some  trees,  as  the  oak,  throw  their  limbs  out  from  the  trunk  hori- 
zontally. As  Dr.  Holmes  says:  "The  others  shirk  the  work  of  resist- 
ing gravity,  the  oak  defies  it.  It  chooses  the  horizontal  direction  for 
its  limbs  so  that  their  whole  weight  may  tell,  and  then  stretches  them 
out  fifty  or  sixty  feet  so  that  the  strain  may  be  mighty  enough  to  be 
worth  resisting." 

Some  trees  have  limbs  which  droop  toward  the  ground,  while  those 
of  most,  perhaps,  have  an  upward  tendency,  and  others  still  have  an 
upward  direction  at  first  and  later  in  their  growth  a  downward  inclina- 
tion, as  in  the  case  of  the  elm,  the  birch,  and  the  willows.  Some,  like 
the  oak,  have  comparatively  few  but  large  and  strong  branches,  while 
others  have  many  and  slender  limbs,  like  some  of  the  birches  and 
lioplars. 

The  teacher  should  call  attention  to  these  and  other  characteristics 
of  tree  structure,  drawing  the  various  forms  of  trees  on  the  blackboard 
and  encouraging  the  i)upils  to  do  the  same,  allowing  them  also  to  cor- 
rect each  other's  drawings.  This  will  greatly  increase  their  knowledge 
of  trees  and  their  interest  in  them  as  well  as  in  Arbor  Day  and  its 
appropriate  observance. 


ARBOR   DAY ITS   HISTORY   AND   OBSERVANCE. 


47 


LEAVES,  AND  WHAT  THEY  DO. 

The  leaves  of  the  trees  afford  an  almost  endless  study  and  a  constant 
delight.  Frail,  fragile  things,  easily  crumpled  and  torn,  they  are  won- 
derful in  their  delicate  structure,  and  more  wonderful  if  possible  on 
account  of  the  work  which  they  perform. 

They  are  among  the  most  beautiful  things  offered  to  our  sight.  Some 
one  has  well  said  that  the  beauty  of  the  world  depends  as  much  upon 
leaves  as  upon  flowers.  We  think  of  the  bright  colors  of  flowers  and 
are  apt  to  forget  or  fail  to  notice  the  coloring  of  leaves. 
But  what  a  picture  of  color,  beyond  anything  that 
flowers  can  give  us,  is  spread  before  our  sight  for 
weeks  every  autumn,  when  the  leaves  ripen  and  take 
on  hues  like  those  of  the  most  gorgeous  sunset  skies, 

and  the  wide 
landscape  is 
all  aglow  with 
them.  A  wise 
observer  has 
called  atten- 
tion also  to 
the  fact  that 
the  various 
kinds  of  trees 
have  in  the 
early  spring- 
time  also, 
onlyinamore 

subdued  tone,  the  same  coloi's  which  they  put  on  in  the  autumn.  If 
we  notice  the  leaves  carefully,  we  shall  see  that  there  is  a  great  variety 
of  color  in  them  all  through  the  year.  While  the  prevailing  color,  or 
the  body  color,  so  to  speak,  is  green,  and  the  general  tone  of  the  trees 
seen  in  masses  is  green — the  most  pleasant  of  all  colors  to  be  abidingly 
before  the  sight — this  is  prevented  from  becoming  dull  or  somber  because 
it  comi)rises  almost  innumerable  tints  and  shades  of  the  selfsame  color, 
while  other  distinct  colors  are  mingled  with  it  to  such  an  extent  as  to 
enliven  the  whole  foliage  mass.  Spots  of  yellow,  of  red,  of  white,  and 
of  intermediate  colors  are  dashed  upon  the  green  leaves  or  become  the 
characteristic  hues  of  entire  trees,  and  so  there  is  brought  about  an 
endless  variety  and  beauty  of  color. 

Then  there  is  the  beauty  of  form,  size,  position,  and  arrangement. 
Of  the  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  or  more  known  species  of  trees 
the  leaves  of  each  have  a  characteristic  shape.  The  leaves  of  no  two 
species  are  precisely  alike  in  form.  More  than  this  is  also  true.  No 
two  leaves  upon  the  same  tree  are  in  this  respect  alike.    While  there  is 


48  ARBOR    DAY — ITS    HISTORY    AND    OBSERVANCE. 

a  close  resemblance  amoug  the  leaves  of  a  given  tree,  so  that  one 
familiar  with  trees  would  not  be  in  doubt  of  their  belonging  to  the 
same  tree,  though  he  should  see  them  only  when  detached,  yet  there 
is  more  or  less  variation,  some  subtle  difference  in  the  notching  or  curv- 
ing of  the  leaf  edge  perhaps,  so  that  each  leaf  has  a  form  of  its  own. 
These  differences  of  shape  in  the  leaves  are  a  constant  source  of  beauty. 

What  a  variety  of  size  also  have  the  leaves,  from  those  of  the  birches 
and  willows  to  those  of  the  sycamores,  the  catalj^as,  and  the  paulownias. 
On  the  same  tree  also  the  leaves  vary  in  size,  those  nearest  the  ground 
and  nearest  the  trunk  being  usually  larger  than  those  more  remote. 
How  different  as  to  beauty  would  the  trees  be  if  their  leaves  were  all  of 
the  same  size;  how  much  less  i)leasing  to  the  sight. 

Then,  what  a  wide  difference  is  there  in  the  position  of  the  leaves  on 
the  trees  and  their  relative  adjustment  to  each  other !  Sometimes  they 
grow  singly,  sometimes  in  pairs,  sometimes  in  whorls  or  clusters.  Some 
droop,  others  spread  horizontally,  while  others  still  are  more  or  less 
erect.  The  leaves  of  some  trees  cling  close  to  the  branches,  others  are 
connected  with  the  branches  by  stems  of  various  length  and  so  are  capa- 
ble of  greater  or  less  movement.  The  leaves  of  poplars  and  aspens 
have  a  peculiarly  flattened  stem,  by  reason  of  which  the  slightest  breath 
of  wind  puts  them  in  motion. 

These  are  some  of  the  most  obvious  characteristics  of  the  leaves,  by 
which  also  they  are  made  the  source  of  so  much  of  the  beauty  of  the 
world  in  which  we  live.  It  will  be  a  source  of  much  pleasure  to  any- 
one who  will  begin  now,  in  the  season  of  swelling  buds  and  opening 
leaves,  to  watch  the  leaves  as  they  unfold  and  notice  their  various  forms 
and  colors  and  compare  them  one  with  another.  There  is  no  better 
way  of  gaining  valuable  knowledge  of  trees  than  this,  for  the  trees  are 
known  by  their  leaves  as  well  as  by  their  fruits. 

But  let  us  turn  now  from  their  outward  appearance  and  consider 
what  is  done  by  them,  for  the  leaves  are  among  the  great  workers  of 
the  world,  or,  if  we  may  not  speak  of  them  as  workers,  a  most  impor- 
tant work  is  done  in  or  by  means  of  them,  a  work  upon  which  our  own 
life  depends  and  that  of  all  the  living  tribes  around  us. 

Every  leaf  is  a  laboratory,  in  which,  by  the  help  of  that  great 
magician,  the  sun,  most  wonderful  changes  and  transformations  are 
wrought.  By  the  aid  of  the  sun  the  crude  sap  which  is  taken  up  from 
the  ground  is  converted  by  the  leaves  into  a  substance  which  goes  to 
build  up  every  part  of  the  tree  and  causes  It  to  grow  larger  from  year 
to  year;  so  that  instead  of  the  tree  making  the  leaves,  as  we  commonly 
think,  the  leaves  really  make  the  tree. 

Leaves,  like  other  parts  of  the  plant  or  tree,  are  composed  of  cells 
and  also  of  woody  material.  The  ribs  and  veins  of  the  leaves  are  the 
woody  part.  By  their  stiffness  they  keep  the  leaves  spread  out  so  that 
the  sun  can  act  upon  them  fully,  and  they  prevent  them  also  from  being 
broken  and  destroyed  by  the  winds,  as  they  otherwise  would  be.    They 


ARBOR   DAY ITS   HISTORY   AND    OBSERVANCE,  49 

serve  also  as  ducts  or  conduits  by  which  the  crude  sap  is  conveyed  to 
the  leaves  and  by  which,  when  it  has  there  been  made  into  plant  food, 
it  is  carried  into  all  parts  of  the  tree  for  its  nourishment.  Protected 
and  upheld  by  these  expanded  woody  ribs,  the  body  of  the  leaf  consists 
of  a  mass  of  pulpy  cells  arranged  somewhat  loosely,  so  that  there  are 
spaces  between  them  through  which  air  can  freely  pass.  Over  this 
mass  of  cells  there  is  a  skin,  or  epidermis,  as  it  is  (tailed,  the  green 
surface  of  the  leaf.  In  this  there  are  multitudes  of  minute  openings, 
or  breathing  pores,  through  which  air  is  admitted  and  through  which 
also  water  or  watery  vapor  passes  out  into  the  surrounding  atmosphere. 
In  the  leaf  of  the  white  lily  there  are  as  many  as  GO,OUO  of  these  open- 
ings in  every  square  inch  of  surface  and  in  the  apple  leaf  not  fewer 
than  24,000.  These  breathing  porv  s,  called  stomates,  are  mostly  on  the 
under  side  of  the  leaf,  except  in  the  case  of  leaves  which  float  upon 
the  water.  There  is  a  beautiful  contrivance  also  in  connection  with 
these  ijores,  by  which  they  are  closed  when  the  air  around  is  dry  and 
the  evaporation  of  the  water  from  the  leaves  would  be  so  rapid  as  to 
be  ham  ful  to  the  tree  and  are  opened  when  the  surrounding  atmos- 
phere is  mo'st. 

The  green  color  of  the  leaves  is  owing  to  the  presence  in  the  cells  of 
minute  green  grains  or  granules,  called  chlorophyll,  which  means  leaf- 
green,  and  these  granules  are  indispensable  to  the  carrying  on  of  the 
imi)ortant  work  which  takes  place  in  the  leaves.  They  are  more  numer- 
ous and  also  packed  more  closely  together  near  the  upper  surface  of 
the  leaf  than  they  are  near  the  lower.  It  is  because  of  this  that  the 
upper  surface  is  of  a  deeper  green  than  the  lower. 

Such,  then,  is  the  laboratory  of  the  leaf,  the  place  where  certain 
inorganic,  lifeless  substances,  such  as  water,  lime,  sulphur,  potash,  and 
phosphorous,  are  transformed  and  converted  into  living  and  organic 
vegetable  matter,  and  from  which  this  is  sent  forth  to  build  up  every 
part  of  the  tree  from  deepest  root  to  topmost  sprig.  It  is  in  the 
leaves  also  that  all  the  food  of  man  and  all  other  animals  is  prepared, 
for  if  any  do  not  feed  upon  vegetable  substances  directly  but  upon 
flesh,  that  flesh  nevertheless  has  been  made  only  as  vegetable  food  has 
been  eaten  to  form  it.  It  is,  as  the  Bible  says,  "  The  tree  of  the  field 
is  man's  life." 

But  let  us  consider  a  little  further  the  work  of  the  leaves.  The  tree 
is  made  up  almost  wholly  of  oxygen,  hydrogen,  and  carbon.  It  is  easy 
to  see  where  the  oxygen  and  hydrogen  are  obtained,  for  they  are  the 
two  elements  which  compose  water,  and  that  we  have  seen,  the  roots 
ar  absorbing  from  the  ground  all  the  while  and  sending  through  the 
body  of  the  tree  into  the  leaves.  But  where  does  the  carbon  come 
from!     A  little  examination  will  show. 

The  atmosphere  is  composed  of  several  gases,  mainly  of  oxygen  and 
nitrogen.  Besides  these,  however,  it  contains  a  small  portion  of  car- 
bonic acid,  that  is,  carbon  chemically  united  with  oxygen.  The  carbonic 
10578 4 


50 


ARBOR    DAY ITS    HISTORY    AND    OBSERVANCE. 


acid  is  of  no  use  to  us  directly,  and  in  any  but  very  minute  quantities  is 
harmful;  but  the  carbon  in  it,  if  it  can  be  separated  from  the  oxygen,  is 
just  what  the  tree  and  every  plant  wants.  And  now  the  work  of  separat- 
ing the  carbon  from  tlie  oxygen  is  precisely  that  which  is  done  in  the 
wonderful  laboratory  of  the  leaf.  Under  the  magic  touch  of  the  sun,  the 
carbonic  acid  of  the  atmosphere,  which  has  entered  the  leaf  througli  the 
breathing  pores  or  stomates  and  is  circulating  through  the  air-passages 
and  cells,  is  decomposed,  that  is,  taken  to  pieces;  the  oxygen  is  poured 
out  into  the  air  along  with  the  watery  vapor  of  the  crude  sap,  while  the 
carbon  is  combined  with  the  elements  of  water  and  other  substances 
which  we  have  mentioned,  to  form  the  elaborated  sap  or  plant  material 
which  is  now  ready  to  be  carried  from  the  leaves  to  all  parts  of  the  plant 
or  tree,  to  nourish  it  and  continue  its  growth.  Such  is  the  important 
and  wonderful  work  of  the  leaf,  the  tender,  delicate  leaf,  which  we 
crumple  so  easily  in  our  fingers.  It  builds  up,  atom  by  atom,  the  tree 
and  the  great  forests  which  beautify  the  world  and  provide  for  us  a 
thousand  comforts  and  conveniences.  Our  houses  and  the  furniture  in 
them,  our  boats  and  ships,  the  cars  in  which  we  fly  so  swiftly,  the  many 
beautiful  and  useful  things  which  are  manufactured  from  wood  of  var- 
ious kinds,  all  these,  by  the  helj)  of  the  sun,  are  furnished  us  by  the  tiny 
leaves  of  the  trees. 


THE  BEST  USE  OF  ARBOR  DAY. 


Arbor  Day  to  be  most  useful,  as  well 
as  most  pleasant,  should  not  stand  by 
itself,  alone,  but  be  connected  with  much 
study  and  talk  of  trees  and  kindred  sub- 
jects beforehand  and  afterwards.  It 
should  rather  be  the  focal  or  culminating 
point  of  the  year's  observation  of  trees 
and  other  natural  objects  with  which 
they  are  closely  connected.  The  wise  teacher 
will  seek  to  cultivate  the  observing  faculties  of 
the  pupils  by  calling  their  attention  to  the  inter- 
esting things  with  which  the  natural  world  abounds. 
It  is  not  necessary  to  this  that  there  should  be  formal 
classes  in  botany  or  any  natural  science,  though  we 
think  no  school  should  be  without  its  botanical  class  or  classes,  nor 
should  anyone  be  eligible  to  the  place  of  a  teacher  in  our  public 
schools  who  is  not  competent  to  give  efficient  instruction  in  botany  at 
least. 

But  much  may  be  done  in  this  direction  informally  by  brief,  familiar 
talks  in  the  intervals  between  the  regular  recitations  of  the  school- 
room, or  during  the  walks  to  and  from  school.    A  tree  by  the  roadside 


ARBOR    DAY ITS    HISTORY    AND    OBSERVANCE. 


51 


will  furnish  nn  object  lesson  for  pleasant  and  profitable  discourse  for 
many  days  and  at  all  seasons.  A  few  flowers,  which  teacher  or  pupil 
may  bring  to  the  schoolroom,  will  easily  be  made  the  means  of  inter- 
esting the  oldest  and  the  youngest  and  of  imparting  the  most  profit- 
able instruction.  How  easy  also  to  plant  a  few  seeds  in  a  vase  in  the 
schoolroom  window  and  to  encourage  the  pupils  to  watch  their  sprout- 
ing and  subsequent  growth. 

The  pupils  can  also  be  readily  interested  in  getting  sections  of  trees 
so  cut  as  to  show  the  structure  of  the  wood,  and  with  a  portion  of  the 
bark  left  upon  them.  It  will  require  but  a  short  time  to  accumulate 
quite  a  collection  of  such  specimens  in  the  schoolroom,  and  they  will 
serve  as  a  standard  of  reference  with  which  to  compare  fresh  speci. 
mens  and  identify  them.  One  face  of  the  sections  should  be  smoothed 
and  varnished,  the  others  should 
be  left  as  when  split  from  the  tree. 
The  cut  appended  shows  a  good 
form  for  such  sections. 

Then  it  should  not  be  difficult 
to  have  a  portion  of  the  schocd 
grounds  set  apart,  where  the 
pupils  might,  with  the  teacher's 
guidance,  plant  flower  and  tree 
seeds  and  thus  be  able  to  observe 
the  ways  and  characteristics  of 
plants  in  all  periods  of  their 
growth.  They  could  thus  provide 
themselves  with  trees  for  plant- 
ing on  future  Arbor  Days,  and  at 
the  time  of  i)lanting  there  would 
be  increased  enjoyment  from  the 
fact  that  they  had  grown  the 
trees  for  that  very  purpose. 

Why  might  not  every  schoolhouse  ground  be  made  also  an  arbore- 
tum, where  the  pupils  might  have  under  their  eyes,  continually,  speci- 
mens of  all  the  trees  that  grow  in  the  town  or  in  the  State  where  the 
school  is  situated!  It  would  require  but  a  little  incitement  from  the 
teacher  to  make  the  pupils  enthusiastic  with  the  desire  to  find  out  the 
different  species  indigenous  to  the  region  and  to  gather  them  by  sowing 
seeds  or  planting  the  young  trees  around  their  i)lace  of  study. 

And  if  the  school  premises  are  now  too  small  in  extent  to  admit  of 
such  a  use,  let  the  pupils  make  an  earnest  plea  for  additional  ground. 
As  a  general  fact  our  school  grounds  have  been  shamefully  limited  in 
extent,  and  neglected  as  to  their  use  and  keeping.  The  schoolhouse  in 
itself  and  in  its  surroundings  ought  to  be  one  of  the  most  beautiful  and 
attractive  objects  to  be  seen  in  any  community.  The  approach  from  the 
street  should  be  like  that  to  any  dwelling  house,  over  well-kept  walks, 


52 


ARBOR    DAY ITS    HISTORY    AND    OBSERVANCE. 


bordered  by  greea  turf,  with  trees  and  shrubs  and  flowers  offering  their 
adornment.  Everything  should  speak  of  neatness  and  order.  The 
playground  should  be  ample,  but  it  should  be  in  a  retired  situation  and 
by  itself. 

Europeans  are  in  advance  of  us  in  school  management.  ^Fhe  Aus- 
trian public  school  law  reads: 

^'In  every  school  a  gymnastic  ground,  a  garden  for  the  teacher, 


according  to  the  circumstances  of  the  community,  and  a  place  for  the 
purposes  of  agricultural  experiment,  are  to  be  created." 

There  are  now  nearly  8,000  school  gardens  in  Austria,  not  including 
Hungary.  In  France,  also,  gardening  is  taught  in  the  primary  and 
elementary  schools.  There  are  nearly  30,000  of  these  schools,  each  of 
which  has  a  garden  attached  to  it,  and  the  minister  of  public  instruc- 
tion has  resolved  to  increase  the  number  of  school  gardens,  and  that 
no  one  shall  be  appointed  master  of  an  elementary  school  unless  he  can 
prove  himself  capable  of  giving  practical  instruction  in  the  culture  of 


ARBOR   DAY ITS    HISTORY    AND    OBSERVANCE.  53 

mother  earth.  In  Sweden,  iu  1871,  there  were  22,000  children  in  the 
common  schools  receiving  instruction  in  horticulture  and  tree  planting. 
Each  of  more  than  2,000  schools  had  for  cultivation  from  one  to  twelve 
acres  of  ground. 

Why  should  we  be  behind  the  Old  World  in  caring  for  the  schools? 
By  the  munificence  of  one  of  her  citizens  New  York  has  twice  offered 
premiums  for  the  best-kept  school  grounds.  Why  may  we  not  have 
Arbor  Day  premiums  in  all  of  our  States  and  in  every  town  for  the 
most  tasteful  arrangement  of  schoolhouse  and  grounds?  These  places 
of  education  should  be  the  pride  of  every  community  instead  of  being, 
as  they  so  often  are,  a  reproach  and  shame. 


TREE  PUNTING. 

In  considering  tree  planting  in  connection 
with  Arbor  Day,  the  first  question  to  arise  is, 
Where  shall  we  plant?  It  is  obvious  that  the 
practical  work  of  Arbor  Day  can  not  include 
forest  planting.  That  is  a  work  so  large  and 
special  in  its  nature  as  to  require  the  com- 
bined effort  of  persons  in  an  organized  capac- 
ity, such  as  a  town,  county,  or  State,  which 
shall  either  do  the  work  outriglit  or  give  such 
encouragement  and  help  as  will  stimulate  individual  effort  to  the 
requisite  degree.  Arbor  Day  observances,  to  be  sure,  should  not  lose 
sight  of  the  fiict  that  we  need  something  besides  planting  trees  by  the 
roadside  or  on  the  lawn,  or  here  and  there  one  in  memory  of  some  dis- 
tinguished person;  something  more  than  the  landscape  gardener's  art 
in  planting  appropriately  public  parks.  ^ 

These  works  of  minor  importance  should  lead  to  such  a  knowledge 
of  the  uses  of  trees  in  masses — the  extensive  forests — in  connection  with 
climate,  with  the  flow  of  streams  and  consequently  with  agricultural 
oi^erations  and  with  manufactures,  in  short,  with  the  general  interests 
of  household  and  business  life,  that  in  due  time  there  will  be  developed 
a  sentiment  that  will  be  powerful  to  arrest  the  wasteful  and  unneces- 
sary destruction  of  our  forests  and  insure  the  planting  of  them  in 
places  from  which  they  have  been  removed  or  where  they  are  specially 
needed.  One  thing  is  to  be  remembered  and  it  is  calculated  to  lend 
effectiveness  to  the  work  of  Arbor  Day.  It  is  that  trees  are  living  and 
self  propagating  things;  that  it  i-;  their  nature  to  grow,  and  that  they 
will  grow  and  extend  themselves  on  every  hand  if  not  interfered  with 
and  thwarted  by  man.  As  an  illustration  of  this  we  see  the  abandoned 
farms  on  our  hillsides  soon  filling  up  with  a  wood  growth.    It  may  not 

'Tho  Department  of  Agrifnltnre  has  treated  the  subjecti  of  forest  planting  in 
Bulletin  No.  5,  ''  Forestry  for  Farmers,"  recently  published. 


54  ARBOR   DAY — ITS   HISTORY   AND    OBSERVANCE. 

be  of  the  most  valuable  or  desirable  character,  but  it  shows  what 
nature  is  ready  to  do,  and  it  indicates  a  direction  in  which  the  influence 
of  Arbor  Day  may  be  made  effective. 

Let  it  be  understood  that  the  hills  and  mountain  slopes  are  worth 
more  for  the  growth  of  trees  than  for  agricultural  use,  or  rather  that 
the  tree  croj)  is  the  most  appropriate  agricultural  crop  for  the  hill  and 
mountain  slopes,  the  rocky  surfaces  which  resist  the  plow  and  the  hoe. 
Let  the  farmer  learn  that  if  he  will  but  exclude  from  his  woodlands  the 
browsing  cattle,  which  are  ready  to  eat  off  every  tender  tree  as  it  sprouts 
from  the  ground  and  to  break  down  with  their  heavy  bulk  those  which 
have  already  attained  a  hopeful  size,  and  if  he  will  cull  the  inferior 
trees  instead  of  the  best,  for  his  occasional  uses,  and  fill  the  too  wide 
vacant  spaces  with  a  judicious  planting,  he  may  soon  have  a  woodland, 
though  it  may  not  have  the  dimensions  of  a  forest,  which  will  be  of 
manifold  benefit  to  him  as  well  as  to  others  and  be  increasing  in  value 
from  year  to  year.  This  use  of  elevated  and  rocky  lands,  where  ordi- 
nary agriculture  is  difficult  and  comparatively  unremunerative,  ought 
to  be  encouraged  by  the  Arbor  Day  movement.  It  may  and  should 
make  itself  felt  in  this  direction. 

The  same  is  true  in  reference  to  many  sandy  and  swampy  lands. 
These  will  nourish  trees  and  prove  a  perpetual  source  of  income. 
Trees,  unlike  the  ordinary  farm  crops,  continually  improve  the  quality 
of  the  ground  on  which  they  grow.  The  German  Government,  in  its 
wise  and  careful  management,  is  constantly  buying  up  the  worn-out  or 
impoverished  farms  of  its  husbandmen  and  by  stocking  them  with  trees 
restoring  their  fertility  and  fitting  them  again  for  agricultural  use. 
On  a  great  many  of  our  light,  sandy  soils,  now  left  as  wind-swept 
barren  fields  or  yielding  only  the  most  meager  crops,  a  growth  of  that 
most  valuable  tree  the  white  pine  (Pinus  strohus)j  may  be  secured  in 
twenty  years  and  even  less,  of  marketable  size.  There  is  a  great  demand 
for  the  wood  of  this  tree  in  its  early  stages,  for  the  manufacture  of  staves, 
for  tubs  and  small  casks,  as  well  as  for  other  uses,  and  many  land- 
owners are  finding  it  quite  profitable  to  raise  and  market  this  i)ine  at  a 
comparatively  early  age. 

This  is  not  the  place  to  discuss  further  the  subject  of  forest  planting 
or  forest  preservation,  unless  it  be  to  say  that  perhaps  a  greater  enemy 
of  the  forest  than  the  ax  is  fire,  and  that  wherever  -there  is  regard 
enough  for  trees  to  occasion  the  observance  of  Arbor  Day  there  ought 
to  be  also  consideration  enough  for  the  preservation  of  the  forests  of 
the  vicinity  to  inaugurate  some  well-arranged  and  efficient  plan  to  pro- 
tect them  from  the  flames  which,  kindled  by  accident  or  carelessness, 
are  not  only  a  detriment  to  the  legal  owner  of  the  forest  but  to  the 
whole  community,  for,  in  an  imi>ortant  sense,  the  forests  are  common 
property.  By  their  beauty,  their  influence  upon  climate  and  water 
supply,  they  are  of  benefit  to  all  who  live  in  sight  of  them  and  may  be 
to  those  more  distant  from  them.  All,  therefore,  ought  to  be  ready  to 
make  their  preservation  a  common  cause. 


ARBOR    DAY — ITS    HISTORY    AND    OBSERVANCE. 


55 


STREET  PLANTING. 

Forests  apart,  if  the  question  arises  where  to  plant,  nearly  all  will 
say  plant  along  the  borders  of  the  streets.  This  is  natural  and  right, 
and  so  the  first  thing  which  the  village  improvement  societies,  which 
have  sprung  up  so  abundantly  of  late,  have  done  has  been  to  plant 
trees  on  the  roadsides.  Unfortunately,  also,  this  has  too  often  been  the 
last  thing.  Village  improvement  has  frequently  exhausted  itself  by  the 
wayside.  This  speaks  well  for  the  general  estimate  of  trees,  however 
it  may  speak  for  the  x)eople's  estimate  of  what  constitute  the  needs  or 
the  possibilities  of  village  life. 


Lauo  at  Darlington,  Md. 


Certainly  no  one  thing  adds  so  much  to  the  appearance  of  town  or 
village,  or  aftbrds  so  much  outward  comfort  to  its  i^eople,  as  to  have  its 
streets  properly  planted  with  trees.  As  a  source  of  embellishment  noth- 
ing can  surpass  it.  How  much  would  it  detract  from  the  charm  of 
Washington,  celebrated  for  beauty  on  account  of  its  broad  streets,  ample 
parks,  and  the  plan  on  which  they  are  constructed,  if  its  80,000  or  more 
trees  which  border  those  streets  and  adorn  those  parks  were  removed? 
Washington  would  be  distinctly  another  city  than  it  now  is.  But  what 
is  true  of  the  National  Capital  is  true  of  the  smaller  town  or  village. 
The  difference  is  not  in  kind,  but  only  in  scale  or  dimension. 

In  deciding,  however,  what  trees  are  most  desirable  for  street  or 
roadside  planting,  no  little  difficulty  arises.    Ko  general  list  can  be 


56 


ARBOR   DAY ITS    HISTORY    AND    OBSERVANCE. 


made  for  such  au  extensive  country  as  ours.  Trees  wliicli  ^yill  grow 
well  aud  are  all  that  can  be  desired  in  one  portion  of  it  are  not  suitable 
for  another.  Trees  which  are  at  home  on  the  Pacific  Coast  will  x)ine 
away  and  die  on  the  Atlantic.  Even  in  localities  separated  by  only 
a  few  miles  the  same  kinds  of  trees  may  not  flourish.  Differences  of 
soil  and  climate,  or  a  particular  exposure,  determine  to  a  great  extent 
what  trees  are  to  be  chosen  if  we  would  be  successful  in  our  planting. 
In  cities,  the  prevalence  of  smoke  in  the  atmosphere,  or  the  escaj^e 
of  illuminating  or  other  gases,  comi)licate  the  i^roblem  and  make  the 
selection  additionally  difficult. 

The  American  Forestry  Association  appointed  a  committee  several 
years  ago  for  the  purpose  of  making  a  list  of  trees  most  desirable  for 


street  tree  plawtiii-^;. 


street  planting,  but  the  committee  has  not  yet  reported.  To  make  a 
list  large  enough  for  the  whole  country  would  be  to  include  so  many 
trees  that  it  would  be  of  little  use  for  any  particular  locality,  and  to 
make  one  for  a  given  place  would  be  of  little  use  to  the  country  at  large. 
Each  locality  must  have  its  selection  of  trees  made  with  reference  to  its 
particular  circumstances.  Happily,  we  have  an  unusually  large  variety 
of  trees,  excelling  by  far  that  of  any  other  country,  which  admits  a 
choice  of  valuable  kinds  adaj^ted  to  every  situation.  Trees  can,  indeed, 
be  acclimated,  as  people  can,  and  when  removed  from  their  native  places 
to  other  and  different  ones  can  be  made  to  adapt  themselves  to  their  new 
environment.    Their  growth,  however,  is  apt  to  be  more  or  less  feeble 


ARBOR   DAY ITS   HISTORY    AND    OBSERVANCE.  57 

and  unsatisfactory.  Trees  Lave  their  natural  homes,  in  which  they 
attain  their  best  development.  The  geologist,  as  he  may  be  traveling 
swiftly  over  the  country,  can  as(;ertain  the  character  of  the  soil,  its  min- 
eral composition,  from  the  inevailing  kinds  of  trees  which  from  time  to 
time  meet  his  sight. 

Some  trees  are  less  particular  than  others  iu  their  choice  of  climatic 
or  soil  conditions,  and  therefore  are  available  for  idanting  over  a  wider 
range  of  territory  and  under  a  greater  variety  of  exx)osure.  They  will 
have  their  places,  consequently,  in  many  lists  of  desirable  trees. 

The  Tree  Planting  and  Fountain  Society  of  Brooklyn,  ]^.  Y.,  a  few 
years  ago  sent  a  request  to  various  nurserymen,  landscape  architects, 
practical  arboriculturists,  and  private  citizens  in  different  parts  of  the 
country  for  a  small  list  of  what  they  deemed  the  most  suitable  trees  to 
be  recommended  for  planting~on  the  streets  of  Brooklyn,  a  general 
descrii)tion  of  the  character  of  the  soil  of  the  city  having  been  sent 
with  the  request.  Three  classes  of  trees  were  asked  for — large,  medium 
sized,  and  smaller,  for  wide  streets,  narrow  ones,  and  those  of  inter- 
mediate width.  The  lists  received  were  interesting  as  showing  the  vary- 
ing estimates  of  the  same  tree  by  different  persons  and  also  the  sub- 
stantial agreement  of  the  same  persons  in  regard  to  a  large  number  of 
trees. 

Fifteen  lists  were  sent  in,  and  in  all  about  sixty  trees  were  recom- 
mended. Of  these  the  Korway  maple  was  most  frequently  found  on  the 
lists,  followed  in  the  order  of  preference  by  the  sugar  maple,  oriental 
plane,  laurel-leaved  willow,  silver  maple,  European  linden,  American 
elm,  sweet  gum,  catalpa,  yellowwood,  pin  oak,  white  oak,  American 
linden,  or  basswood,  hackberry,  scotch  elm,  kcelreuteria,  and  tulip 
poplar.  The  other  trees  on  the  lists  were  named  only  in  one  or  two 
instances  each. 

In  another  list,  sent  from  the  Division  of  Forestry  of  the  Department 
of  Agriculture,  and  in  which  the  rating  of  the  trees  was  made  up  from 
a  consideration  of  eight  separate  points,  viz,  endurance,  or  ability  to 
withstand  more  or  less  unfavorable  conditions,  recuperative  power,  or 
ability  to  heal  wounds  and  outgrow  other  injuries,  cleanliness,  beauty 
of  form,  abundance  of  shade,  extent  of  the  season  when  in  leaf,  rapid- 
ity of  growth,  and  length  of  life  period,  the  trees  stood  rated  in  the 
three  classes  thus: 

LARGE-SIZED   TREES. 


Red  oak  (Quercus  rubra),  22. 
Scarlet  oak  (Quercus  cocc'mea),  22. 
Yellow  oak  (Quercus  tinctoria),  22. 
American  elm  ( Uhnus  americana),  22. 
Sugar  mai)le  (Acer  saccharinum),  19. 
Black  max)lo  (Acer  nigrum),  19. 
Tulip  tree  (Liriodendron  iiilipifera),  19. 
European  linden  (Tilia  vulgaris),  19. 
Sweet  gum  (Liquidamhar  atyraciftua),  19. 
White  oak  (Quercus  alba),  19. 


Burr  oak  (Quercus  maci'ocarpa),  19. 

Oriental  plane  tree  (Platanus  orientalis), 
19. 

Kentucky  coffee  tree  (Gymnocladus  cana- 
densis), 19. 

American  plane  tree  (Platanus  occidenta- 
lis),  18. 

Sycamore  maple  (Acer  pseudoplatanus), 
19. 

American  linden  (Tilia  americana),  17, 


58  ARBOR    DAY ITS    HISTORY    AND    OBSERVANCE. 


MEDIUM-SIZED  ^REES. 

Red  maple  (Acer  ruhrum),  22.  |  Horse  chestnut  (jS^scuIus  hippocastanum), 


Shingle  oak  (Qiiereus  imhricaria),  21. 
Willow  oak  (Qverciis  phellos),  21. 
Slippery  elm  (  Ulmus  fulva),  21. 
Norway  maple  (Acer  platanoides),  20. 
Box  elder  (Negundo  aceroides),  20. 
European  elm  (  Ulmus  campestris),  19. 
Scotch  elm  (  Ulmus  montana),  19. 
Hackberry  (Celtis  occidentalis),  19. 
Silver-leaved  maple  (Acer  dasy  car pum),  17. 
Treeof  Heav^en  (Ailantkusglandulosiis),  16. 


16. 
Japanese  sophora  (Sophora  japonica),  16. 
Hardy  catalpa  (Catalpa  speciosa),  16. 
Ginkgo    or    maiden    hair    tree    (Givkgo 

lAloha),  16. 
Honey  locust  (Gleditsia  triacanthos),  15. 
Cottonwood  (Popiilns  monilifera),  15. 
Balm  of  Gilead  (Populus  halsamifera  var. 

candicans),  15. 
Black  locust  (Bohinia pseudacacia) ,  14. 


SMALL-SIZED   TREES. 


English  maple  (Acer  campestre),  21. 
Round-top   locust  (Bohinia   pseudacacia- 

form),  18. 
Red  horse-chestnut  (JLsculus  rubicunda), 

17. 
Laurel-leaved  willow  (Salix  pentandra), 

17. 


Bay  willow  (Salix  laurifoUa),  17. 
Green  ash  (Fraxirms  viiidls),  16. 
European  mountain  ash  (Sorhus  aucupa- 

ria),  15. 
American    mountain    ash   (Pyrus   ameri- 

cana),  15. 
Yellow  wood  (Cladastris  tinctoria),  15. 


The  rating  of  trees  in  this  list  does  not  differ  essentially  from  the 
average  rating  of  the  lists  ah^eady  referred  to.  iSnch  lists  can  not  be 
taken  as  authoritative  or  decisive,  but  only  as  helps.  Persons  of 
equally  good  judgment  will  differ  in  their  estimate  of  particular  trees, 
and  time  and  trial  will  be  needed  in  order  to  reach  a  final  decision  as 
to  the  trees  best  adapted  for  use  in  any  given  place. 

It  hardly  needs  to  be  said  that  it  is  only  on  broad  streets  or  where 
buildings  are  set  well  back  from  the  street  that  such  widespreading 
trees  as  some  of  the  oaks  are  desirable  for  planting;  but  the  oaks  are 
among  our  best  trees  where  there  is  room  for  them,  and  they  should  be 
planted  on  our  streets,  much  more  than  they  have  been.  For  ordinary 
streets,  and  especially  for  those  which  are  narrow,  such  trees  should  be 
chosen  as  do  not  grow  to  large  size  or  such  as  are  spiry  topped.  Of  the 
latter  a  new  comer  among  us  may  be  favorably  mentioned,  the  ginkgo. 
This  is  one  of  the  few  trees  which  it  seems  desirable  to  cultivate  in  addi- 
tion to  the  large  number  of  valuable  native  trees  which  we  have.  But 
the  peculiarity  of  its  form  and  of  its  leaves,  which  mark  a  blending  of 
the  broad-leafed  and  the  needle-shaped  leaves,  and  its  wonderful  golden 
coloring  in  autumn,  make  it  very  attractive,  and  it  is  well  adapted  for 
planting  on  narrow  streets  as  well  as  singly  in  open,  lawn-like  spaces. 
Whoever  has  seen  the  avenue  leading  up  to  the  main  building  of  the 
Department  of  Agriculture,  which  is  bordered  with  the  ginkgo,  must 
feel  that  it  is  one  of  the  most  desirable  trees  for  similar  use.  What 
degree  of  cold  this  tree  will  endure  remains  to  be  seen,  but  it  is  growing 
well  as  far  north  as  Boston. 

A  good  word  should  be  said  also  for  the  ailanthus.  It  was  formerly 
a  favorite  tree,  but  has  been  discarded  on  account  of  its  unpleasant 
odor  in  its  flowering  season.    This,  however,  may  be  avoided  by  planting 


ARBOR   DAY ITS   HISTORY   AND    OBSERVANCE. 


59 


only  the  pistillate  trees,  as  the  odor  is  noticeable  from  tlie  staminate 
trees  only.  Professor  Sargent  speaks  of  the  ailan thus  as  '^probably  the 
best  street  tree  that  has  ever  been  used  in  northern  cities." 


PLANTING  ON  SCHOOL  GROUNDS. 

Where  Arbor  Day  is  observed  by  the  schools  it  will,  perhaps,  seem 
that  tree  planting-  on  the  school  grounds  deserves  consideration  before 
planting  on  the  street  borders;  but  the  two  are  nearly  related.  If  an 
attempt  is  made  to  plant  around  the  schoolhouse,  some  street  planting 
will  almost  necessarily  be  done  in 
connection  with  it.  Certainly  the 
pupils  of  any  school  should  be  en- 
couraged to  plant  trees  about  the 
building  to  which  they  come  day 
after  day  and  where  so  much  of 
their  time  is  spent.  They  snould 
be  encouraged  to  make  it  beauti- 
ful and  attractive  now  with  foli- 
age and  flowers,  and  a  place  to 
which  they  may  look  back  in  after 
life  with  pleasant  memories. 

Even  the  smallest  school  ground 
is  large  enough  to  admit  some  em- 
bellishment of  tree  or  shrub,  and 
even  a  single  tree  will  add  attract- 
iveness to  the  place.  Such  a  tree 
planted  by  the  children  them- 
selves will  be  regarded  as  their 
common  jjroperty.  All  will  be  in- 
terested in  it  and  will  combine  to 
protect  it  and  give  it  all  needed 
care.  In  so  doing  they  will  learn 
manifold  lessons  in  regard  to  tree 

growth  and  habits,  in  regard  also  to  the  ways  of  the  birds  and  insects 
which  will  frequent  it.  While  they  are  cultivating  the  tree  they  may 
also  be  cultivating  in  themselves  the  best  traits  of  character  and  gain- 
ing as  much  as  from  their  books.  Biit  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  most  of 
our  school  grounds  are  ample  enough  to  admit  of  a  considerable  number 
of  trees  and  shrubs  and  flowery  plants  besides.  Then  there  will  be 
opportunity  for  planting  a  variety  of  trees  and  for  a  careful  study  in 
order  to  select  the  best,  both  for  beauty  and  for  adaptation  to  the  place 
where  they  are  to  stand  and  grow.  Care  should  be  taken  that  the  plant- 
ing of  the  school  grounds  shall  not  be  done  hastily  or  without  due  con- 
sideration, nor  that  too  much  be  done  in  a  single  season.  Leave  some 
work  to  be  done  in  coming  years  to  give  new  zest  to  the  Arbor  Day 
exercises.  One  tree  well  chosen  and  well  planted  is  worth  a  dozen  or  a 
score  selected  and  planted  as  trees  often  are. 


w 


60  ARBOR   DAY ITS    HISTORY    AND    OBSERVANCE. 

With  many  persons  a  tree  is  a  tree,  and  peculiarities  of  nature  or 
habit  of  growth  are  taken  little  account  of.  It  is  enough  also  with 
many,  in  planting,  if  a  hole  is  made  in  the  ground  and  the  roots  of  the 
tree,  many  or  few,  are  thrust  into  it  and  hastily  covered  with  earth 
again.  One  of  the  most  difficult  things  to  do  is  to  get  a  tree  properly 
planted,  and  yet  tree  planting  is  a  very  simple  thing.  It  consists  in 
taking  a  tree  out  of  the  ground  without  injury  and  placing  it  in  the 
ground  again  in  another  place  also  without  injury,  and  with  a  corre- 
sponding connection  with  the  soil  such  as  it  had  before.  This  simply 
requires  time,  patience,  and  care.  Yet  in  planting  a  single  tree  a  boy 
may  learn  a  lesson  of  lifelong  value  to  him. 

The  life  of  a  tree  depends  upon  its  roots.  Through  them  it  gets  its 
nourishment.  But  it  is  not  through  those  which  are  large  and  most 
visible.  It  is  through  the  finest  roots,  and  still  more  the  scarcely  vis- 
ible root  hairs  which  are  most  abundant  on  the  fibrous  rootlets.  The 
large  roots  serve  as  braces  to  hold  the  tree  in  erect  position  and  keep 
it  from  being  swayed  and  overthrown  by  the  winds,  and  also  as  conduits 
through  which  the  water  and  nourishment  gathered  by  the  rootlets  are 
conveyed  to  the  stem  and  thence  to  the  branches  and  leaves.  The  large 
roots  are  of  no  use  in  securing  the  life  of  the  newly  planted  tree  or  pro- 
moting its  growth,  if  the  rootlets  are  broken  off  or  left  behind  when  the 
tree  is  taken  from  its  original  place. 

Hence  the  need  of  time  and  care  in  undertaking  this  removal.  The 
roots,  even  in  a  young  tree,  will  have  spread  to  a  considerable  distance 
from  the  stem  and  to  follow  them  and  detach  them  from  the  soil  adher- 
ing to  them  without  breaking  the  tender  threads  is  not  easy.  It  is 
necessarily  a  slow  though  a  sim.ple  process,  and  we  are  apt  to  be  impatient 
and  wish  to  do  the  work  quickly.  But  the  old  proverb,  "Haste  makes 
waste,"  is  as  true  here  as  anywhere.  So  is  another  that  "What  is 
worth  doing  is  worth  doing  well."  To  plant  a  tree  properly,  so  that  it 
shall  go  on  to  grow  vigorously  and  as  though  nothing  had  happened  to 
impair  its  vitality,  instead  of  barely  making  a  feeble  show  of  life  for  a 
while  only  to  have  a  lingering  death,  is  to  give  the  pupils  of  a  school 
an  object  lesson  to  last  them  and  be  of  use  to  them  for  a  lifetime.  To 
make  the  lesson  the  more  obvious  and  impressive,  let  them,  under  the 
guidance  of  the  teacher  or  some  one  accustomed  to  handle  trees,  plant 
one  properly,  first  preparing  the  ground  where  it  is  to  have  its  new 
home,  by  excavating  a  sufficiently  large  hole  to  receive  all  the  roots  of 
the  tree  with  space  enough  beyond  to  allow  their  unimpeded  growth 
for  years  to  come,  carefully  reducing  the  earth  to  such  a  fine  condi- 
tion that  it  can  be  brought  into  close  contact  with  the  smallest  roots. 
Then,  having  selected  the  tree  beforehand,  let  it  be  so  taken  from  the 
ground  as  to  preserve  all  the  thread-like  roots  and  replaced  as  soon  as 
I)ossible  in  the  ground  prepared  for  it,  the  roots  being  carefully  spread  out 
and  the  fine,  soft  soil  everywhere  brought  into  close  contact  with  them. 

Now,  to  make  more  clear  the  advantage  of  such  a  planting,  it  may  be 
well  to  plant  another  tree  in  the  way  that  trees  are  so  commonly  planted. 


ARBOR    DAY ITS    HISTORY    AND    OBSERVANCE.  61 

Let  some  ordinary  workman  be  sent  to  bring  a  tree  from  the  woods. 
He  will  probably,  with  three  or  four  thrusts  of  his  sharp  spade,  sever 
the  main  roots  of  the  tree  at  about  the  distance  of  a  foot  from  the  stem 
and  then  wrench  the  tree  from  the  ground,  rudely  breaking  off  what 
roots  have  not  been  cut  already,  and  will  bear  off  the  tree  with  a  tri- 
umphant feeling  that  he  was  stronger  than  its  ''plaguey  roots."  Then 
he  will  make  a  hole  in  the  ground  just  large  enough  to  permit  him  to 
crowd  the  lacerated  roots  into  it,  with  much  twisting  and  turning,  and 
then,  heaping  upon  them  the  hard,  lumpy  ground,  he  will  stauip  it  upon 
the  roots  and  consider  the  tree  planted,  as  he  will  say,  perhaps,  ''in  less 
than  no  time."  It  would  have  been  better,  probably,  if  he  had  not  spent 
even  so  much  time  as  he  has  upon  it,  as  the  school  children  will  be 
likely  to  see  to  their  satisfaction  before  the  summer  is  over;  but  they 
may  also  learn  a  lesson  in  tree  planting  worth  the  cost  of  the  life  of 
one  tree.  It  has  been  stated'tecently,  on  good  authority,  as  an  illus- 
tration of  improper  planting,  that  of  some  hundred  trees  planted  a  few 
years  ago  on  the  streets  near  Morningside  Park,  New  York,  every  one 
has  died  or  been  removed  because  of  its  diseased  or  dilapidated  con- 
tion,  and  replaced  by  another. 

Prof.  J.  T.  Eothrock,  forest  commissioner  of  Pennsylvania,  in  reply 
to  a  request  for  some  suggestions  in  regard  to  the  most  profitable 
observance  of  Arbor  Day,  sends  the  following,  bearing  on  this  subject, 
which  is  most  timely: 

In  my  judgment,  one  of  the  most  important  factors  in  Arbor  Day  celebration  is 
space.  We  have  had  but  few  Arbor  Day  celebrations  as  yet  in  this  State ;  yet,  as  I 
go  over  the  Commonwealth,  I  find  that  already  the  question  presses,  Where  to  plant 
next  year's  trees  in  many  of  our  contracted  school  grounds?  The  fact  is,  we  have 
nowhere  in  this  country  recognized  as  we  should  how  important  it  is  to  have  large 
areas  attached  to  our  schools.  There  should  be  room  for  all  legitimate  plays ;  ample 
space  for  a  typical,  well-grown  specimen  of  each  species  of  native  tree.  Then,  there 
should  be  a  nursery  where  each  child  could  plant  seeds  and  nuts  of  our  trees  and  watch 
them  sprout  and  push  out  of  the  ground  and  see  by  what  steps  they  became  trees. 

Furthermore,  this  school  lot  should  not  be  the  refuse  land  of  a  school  district.  It 
should  be  well  situated,  have  abundant  water,  and  as  much  variety  of  soil  and 
exposure  as  possible.  It  is  clear,  if  these  suggestions  have  any  value,  that  5  acres  is 
the  least  space  that  any  country  schoolhouse  should  have. 

It  is  time  for  us  to  recognize  the  fact  that  ground  dedicated  to  educational  pur- 
poses should  be  as  sacred  as  if  aefc  apart  for  a  church.  We  should  look  down  the 
coming  centuries  in  forming  our  plans  for  it,  and  anticipate  and  prepare  for  a  time 
when  mature  oaks  will  transmit  the  love  and  traditions  of  the  place  from  one  gener- 
ation to  the  next.  The  school  located  in  such  surroundings  Avould  soon  come  to  be 
recognized  as  a  valuable  possession.  It  would  be  the  one  cheerful  spot  in  which  the 
whole  community  had  an  ownership,  the  place  of  deposit  of  the  public  library,  and 
the  place  where  the  public  meetings  would  be  held. 

This  may  all  seem  Utopian.  But  it  is  coming.  The  very  hardest  lesson  for  us  all 
to  learn  is  that  the  world  moves  faster  than  we  do.  More  than  this,  it  moves  in 
spite  of  us,  and  the  next  century  will  probably  not  be  very  old  before  it  has  moved 
into  a  higher  appreciation  of  the  value  of  large  and  well-kept  school  grounds.  Our 
successors  will  feel  that  space  which  is  too  small,  and  land  that  is  too  poor  to 
attempt  to  raise  a  crop  of  grain  upon,  is  also  wholly  inadequate  to  the  larger  work 
of  raising  a  crop  of  vigorous,  liberal-minded,  law-abiding  citizens  upon. 


62 


ARBOR    DAY ITfcJ    HISTORY    AND    OBSERVANCE. 


PLANTING  ON  LAWNS  AND  IN  PARKS. 

After  what  has  been  said  of  planting  on  streets  and  school  grounds 
little  needs  to  be  added  in  regard  to  tree  planting  on  larger  spaces, 
such  as  lawns,  parks,  and  other  open  places.  The  same  trees  may  be 
used  in  general,  but  no  such  restrictions  being  necessitated  as  in  the 
case  of  street  planting,  the  selection  may  be  made  from  a  greater  num- 
ber of  trees.  For  example,  trees  whose  beauty  depends  upon  their 
branches  starting  near  the  ground,  so  that  the  tree  will  be  a  solid  mass 
of  verdure  resting  upon  the  earth's  surface,  are  not  appropriate  for 
street  planting,  where  the  branches  must  all  be  so  high  from  the  ground 


All  old  Maine  homestead. 


as  to  admit  of  unimpeded  passage  under  them.  Many  other  trees  also 
would  be  misplaced  ui)on  a  street  border  which  are  well  adapted  for 
use  on  a  lawn  or  other  open  space. 

No  such  uniformity  in  size  or  habit  of  growth  is  necessary  in  the  case 
of  lawn  or  park  plantations,  as  in  roadside  i)lanting.  Landscape  effects 
are  here  to  be  sought,  and  in  securing  them  there  is  no  limit  hardly  in  the 
choice  of  trees,  except  in  their  adaptation  to  the  soil  and  climate  of  the 
place  to  be  planted.  Here,  as  in  all  cases  of  i^lanting,  the  first  choice 
of  trees  should  be  made  from  those  which  are  indigenous  to  the  locality. 
This  being  done,  others  may  be  brought  from  a  distance  for  the  sake 
of  increasing  variety,  or  on  account  of  their  special  merits,  care  being 


ARBOR    DAY ITS    HISTORY    AND    OBSERVANCE.  63 

taken  to  procure  them  from  localities  corresponding'  as  nearly  as  may  be 
in  climatic  and  soil  conditions  to  the  region  where  it  is  proposed  to 
plant  them. 

AIDS  TO  SUCCESS  IN  PLANTING. 

It  will  conduce  much  to  success  in  planting  if  trees  are  procured  from 
nurseries  rather  than  from  the  woodlands  or  other  uncultivated  places. 
In  the  nursery  grounds  the  soil  is  in  a  light  and  soft  condition,  and  the 
trees  as  they  grow  are  frequently  transplanted.  This  occasions  a  dense 
root  growth  close  to  the  stem,  and  it  enables  the  tree  to  be  taken  from 
the  ground  with  comparatively  little  danger  of  breaking  the  roots,  and 
the  replanting  is  also  accomplished  with  the  greater  facility. 

Another  aid  to  success,  that  is,  to  secure  a  healthy  and  vigorous 
growth  of  trees,  will  be  found  in  giving  them  an  ample  bed  of  deeply 
trenched  and  well-broken  soil  when  the  planting  takes  place;  and  if 
the  soil  is  poor  or  of  too  hard  and  compact  a  character,  by  removing 
it  and  putting  in  its  place  a  liberal  supply  of  soil  of  better  structure 
and  abounding  in  plant  food.  The  present  labor  and  expense  involved 
in  doing  this  will  be  amply  compensated  by  the  appearance  of  the 
trees  in  tbe  subsequent  years  of  their  growth.  The  chief  dei^endence 
of  trees  for  the  promotion  of  their  growth  is  a  sufficient  supply  of 
water,  out  of  the  constituents  of  which  their  bodies  are  largely  built 
up,  and  which  is  the  vehicle  by  means  uf  which  the  mineral  food  in  the 
soil  is  conveyed  to  all  parts  of  their  structure. 

It  is  more  imi)ortant,  therefore,  that  the  soil  should  be  of  proper 
physical  structure  than  that  it  should  abound  in  desirable  mineral 
ingredients.  If  the  soil  is  hard  or  clayey,  so  that  water  can  not  pene- 
trate it  readily,  or  if  it  is  coarse-grained  and  very  porous,  so  that  water 
falling  upon  it  sinks  rapidly  to  the  depths  below,  the  roots  of  trees  will 
fail  to  obtain  such  a  supply  of  moisture  as  is  needful  for  a  vigorous 
growth.  They  will  have  but  a  feeble  vitality.  Hence  the  need  of 
having  a  soil  which  is  of  such  texture  as  readily  to  admit  the  rains 
which  tail  upon  it  and  yet  such  as  to  prevent  the  water  from  rapidly 
passing  out  of  reach  of  the  roots.  In  proportion  as  the  soil  is  fine  it 
presents  a  larger  surface  of  moisture  to  the  minute  roots  of  plants. 

It  will  conduce  to  the  proper  supply  of  moisture  also  if  the  ground 
above  the  tree  roots,  especially  at  the  first  planting,  is  covered  with  a 
mulch  of  straw  or  litter  of  some  sort  which,  by  shielding  it  from  sun 
and  wind,  will  prevent  the  evaporation  of  moisture  from  the  soil  and  to 
that  extent  increase  the  amount  at  the  disposal  of  the  trees.  Few 
understand  how  much  water  is  removed  from  the  ground  by  the  influ- 
ence of  the  sun  and  winds,  especially  the  latter.  One  of  the  chief  diffi- 
culties in  the  way  of  securing  a  desirable  tree  growth  in  many  parts  of 
the  country,  particularly  on  the  Western  plains,  arises  from  the  prev- 
alence of  strong  and  often  hot  winds.  In  the  existing  forests  the  trees 
are  protected  from  the  eff'ects  of  evaporation  by  the  canopy  of  shade 
afforded  by  their  leafy  tops  and  by  the  mulch  of  fallen  leaves  accumu- 


64  ARBOR    BAY ITS    HISTORY    AND    OBSERVANCE. 

lated  year  by  year  at  their  base.  Where  there  are  not  reasons  forbid- 
ding it  we  can  do  nothing  better  to  promote  the  healthful  growth  of  the 
trees  we  plant  than  to  allow  the  annual  fall  of  leaves  to  remain  upon 
the  ground  above  the  roots  and  thus  form  a  perpetual  mulch  of  protec- 
tion for  the  trees. 

METHOD  OF  PLANTING. 

Little  is  necessary  to  be  added  to  what  has  been  said  in  different 
parts  of  this  pamphlet  as  to  the  proper  method  of  planting.  The  whole 
matter  may  be  summed  up  by  saying  that  a  tree  or  idant  should  be 
taken  from  the  ground  with  as  little  disturbance  or  impairment  of  its 
root  system  as  possible  and  set  in  its  new  place  of  growth  with  such 
care  as  not  to  harm  its  roots,  but  to  bring  them  all  into  close  contact 
with  the  soil,  by  pressing  it  firmly  around  and  upon  them,  thus  giving 
them  opportunity  at  every  point  to  absorb  from  the  particles  of  soil  the 
moisture  necessary  for  the  steady  and  healthful  growth  of  the  tree, 
and  leaving  no  vacant  spaces  to  promote  decay  or  lessen  the  supply 
of  moisture.  This  is  the  most  important  thing  to  be  secured.  Care 
should  be  taken  also  in  conveying  the  tree  from  the  place  from  which 
it  is  taken  to  the  place  of  planting  not  to  allow  the  roots  to  become  dry 
by  exposure  either  to  the  sun  or  the  wind.  Especially  should  it  be  so 
in  the  case  of  evergreen  trees,  which  have  a  resinous  sap.  If  this  sap 
becomes  hardened  by  exposure  to  sun  or  wind,  it  is  nearly  impossible 
to  restore  its  fluid  condition  so  that  it  will  perform  its  part  in  the  cir- 
culatory system,  and  the  tree  may  be  considered  dead  already. 


OPINIONS  OF  REPRESENTATIVE  MEN. 

The  State  of  Nebraska  having,  a  few  years 
ago,  made  its  Arbor  Day  to  coincide  with  Mr. 
Morton's  birthday,  the  editor  of  one  of  its  news- 
papers issued,  in  1888,  a  special  Arbor  Day  num- 
ber of  his  paper.  Prominent  among  the  features 
of  til  at  issue  was  a  collection  of  letters  received,  in 
response  to  the  editor's  invitation,  from  a  large  num- 
ber of  persons  distinguished  in  public  life  or  otherwise, 
expressing  their  appreciation  of  Arbor  Day  and  their 
I  regard  for  its  author.  It  seemed  that  the  sentiments  therein 
expressed,  which  so  justly  set  forth  the  merits  and  importance 
of  Arbor  Day,  ought  on  that  account  to  have  a  place  in  the 
present  publication.  Portions  of  a  few  of  the  many  letters  received  are 
therefore  inserted  here: 

I  wilHngly  confess  so  great  a  partiality  for  trees  as  tempts  me  to  respect  a  man  in 
exact  proportion  to  his  respect  for  them.  He  can  not  be  wholly  bad  who  has  a 
sympathy  with  what  is  so  innocent  and  so  beautiful.  But  quite  apart  from  any 
sentimental  consideration,  the  influence  of  trees  upon  climate  and  rainfall  gives  to 


ARBOR   DAY ITS   HISTORY   AND   OBSERVANCE.  65 

the  planting  of  trees,  and  to  the  protection  of  them  where  nature  has  already 
planted  them,  a  national  importance.  Our  wicked  wastefulness  and  contempt  for 
the  teaching  of  science  in  this  matter  will  most  surely  be  avenged  on  our  descend- 
ants. Nature  may  not  instantly  rebuke,  but  she  never  forgives,  the  breach  of  her 
laws. 

I  am  glad,  therefore,  to  join  in  this  tribute  of  friendly  gratitude  to  the  inventor  of 
Arbor  Day.  I  think  that  no  man  does  anything  more  visibly  useful  to  posterity  than 
lie  who  plants  a  tree.  I  should  answer  the  cynic's  question,  "  What  has  posterity 
done  for  me  that  I  should  do  anything  for  it?"  by  saying  that  it  is  all  the  pleasanter 
to  do  something  for  those  who  can  do  nothing  for  us. 

Marco  Polo  relates  that  the  great  Kublai  Khan  planted  trees  the  more  willingly 
because  "'his  astrologers  and  diviners  told  him  that  they  who  planted  trees  lived 
long.''  Let  me  hope  that  this  may  prove  true  in  the  case  of  Mr.  Morton. — James 
Russell  Lowell. 

No  instructed  agriculturist  is  unacquainted  with  the  ameliorating  influence  on 
climate,  rainfall,  freshet,  windstorms,  etc.,  produced  by  the  liberal  planting  of  trees 
on  waste  lands.  The  cheering  thingTias  been  that  the  same  wise  ideas  have  crept 
into  the  minds  of  our  people  and  made  them  set  resolutely  to  work  in  carrying  out 
the  simple,  practical,  and  benignant  suggestion  of  Mr.  Morton. 

An  essay  might  be  written  on  this  topic  by  any  thoughtful  man  acquainted  with 
the  phenomena  of  meteorology,  and  if  Mr,  Morton's  plan  shall  be  persevered  in  by 
the  whole  country,  nature  herself  will  write  that  essay  in  beautiful  style  before  » 
quarter  of  a  century  is  passed. — George  H.  Boker. 

The  best  and  highest  thing  a  man  can  do  in  a  day  is  to  sow  a  seed,  whether  it  be 
in  the  shape  of  a  word,  an  act,  or  an  acorn.  Last  year,  on  less  than  half  an  acre  of 
ground,  at  my  summer  home  by  the  seaside  at  Hull,  I  planted  227  individual  lives, 
of  creeper,  shrubs,  and  tree.  All  through  the  winter,  from  the  city,  my  mind  reached 
out,  as  it  were,  to  observe  and  care  for  the  young  things  in  their  strange  soil.  Last 
week  I  went  to  see  them,  and  Mr.  Morton  will  know  the  thrill  of  pleasure,  unlike 
all  other  pleasures,  which  came  from  the  signs  of  health  and  growth  in  the  plants. — 
John  Boyle  O'Reilly. 

It  is  not  very  long  since,  especially  in  the  Eastern  States,  when  the  enemy  of  the 
tree  was  considered  the  friend  of  the  human  race,  but  the  time  has  now  come  when 
the  friend  of  the  tree  is  the  friend  of  the  race. 

Mr.  Morton  deserves  the  gratitude  of  the  whole  land.  How  many  naked  spots  on 
this  vast  continent  will  be  clothed  in  verdure  by  reason  of  his  happy  suggestion ! 
The  birds  and  animals,  as  well  as  the  people,  profit  by  his  wise  forethought.  Every 
tree  planted  upon  this  day  will  serve  to  keep  green  his  memory. — John  Burroughs. 

If,  as  has  been  wisely  said,  he  is  a  public  benefactor  who  causes  two  blades  of 
grass  to  grow  where  only  one  grew  before,  we  well  may  honor  the  man  to  whom  his 
country  will  owe,  in  the  near  future,  so  many  beautiful  groves  and  orchards  and 
trees,  blessing  with  their  shade  its  village  streets. — J.  T.  Trowbridge. 

Most  of  the  States  have  sinking  funds  with  which  to  provide  for  debts  not  yet  due. 
It  would  be  a  simple  and  wise  policy  for  a  State  to  invest  a  considerable  sum  annu- 
ally from  its  sinking  fund  in  forest.  Individuals  hesitate  about  a  form  of  investment 
which  does  not  pay  for  many  years.  A  State  need  not  hesitate,  because  it  does  not 
need  the  money  for  many  years.  A  State  has  also  the  power  to  make  and  enforce 
the  laws  which  will  protect  its  forests. — Edward  Everett  Hale. 

The  practice  of  systematic  tree  planting  is  a  most  excellent  one,  and  those  who 
have  encouraged  and  promoted  it  deserve  well  of  their  country.  I  am  very  glad 
that  the  "West  has  been  roused  to  a  sense  of  the  importance  of  planting  trees,  and 
hope  that  all  parts  of  the  country  will  soon  feel  the  necessity  of  preserving  them,— 
Francis  Parkman. 

10578 6 


66  ARBOR   DAY — ITS   HISTORY   AND    OBSERVANCE. 

The  material  benefits  of  Arbor  Day  alone  are  incalculable,  for  it  makes  the  barren 
land  fertile  and  the  desert  plain  green  with  beauty. 

But  these  material  benefits,  great  as  they  are,  are  small  compared  with  the  moral 
effect  on  the  mind  and  heart  of  the  people.  In  the  young,  especially,  it  enriches  the 
taste,  cultivates  the  love  of  beauty,  and  provides  pleasant,  healthful  impressions 
that  never  will  be  obliterated.  The  love  of  trees,  I  think,  has  a  more  elevating 
effect  than  even  the  love  of  flowers;  it  is  more  strong  and  invigorating. 

Besides  all  these  immediate  benefits.  Arbor  Day  reaches  far  beyond  the  localities 
where  it  is  observed.  The  young,  gathered  in  certain  sections,  eventually  become 
scattered  and  have  homes  of  their  own.  The  influence  of  this  day  will  follow  them 
there,  and  under  the  influence  of  their  early  cherished  impressions  trees  will  be 
planted,  not  only  around  their  dwellings,  but  along  the  roads  and  water  courses  of 
the  place  in  which  they  live,  and  thus  cover  the  land  with  beauty  and  blessing. 

All  honor,  then,  to  the  founder  of  Arbor  Day.  The  sculptor's  art  could  not  erect 
so  noble  a  monument  to  his  memory  as  loving  hands  and  hearts  are  rearing  and  shall 
rear  to  it  all  over  this  barren  land. — J.  T.  Headley. 

All  lovers  of  nature  may  well  rejoice  in  the  establishment  of  Arbor  Day,  and  join 
in  doing  honor  to  the  founder  of  an  institution  so  beneficent. — Thomas  Wentworth 
Higginson. 

Whatever  makes  a  village  or  town  more  attractive  promotes  that  local  pride  and 
public  spirit  which  are  the  vital  and  conservative  forces  of  a  great  republic ;  and,  if 
the  planter  of  one  shade  tree  is  a  public  benefactor,  what  shall  we  say  of  him  who 
stimulates  the  planting  of  whole  groves  and  forests?— George  William  Curtis. 

The  observance  of  Arbor  Day  is  aiding  in  bringing  about  a  realization  of  the  needs 
of  our  forestry  interests,  and  will  ultimately  make  the  whole  country  equal  to  the 
occasion  of  a  methodical,  systematic  forestry  management. — B.  E.  Fernow. 

Many  people,  often  among  the  most  intelligent,  when  they  first  hear  of  Arbor  Day, 
look  upon  it  as  a  kind  of  sentimental  feast  quite  out  of  date  in  our  matter-of-fact 
generation,  but  upon  a  closer  inspection  they  soon  discover  its  practical  value. — 
H.  G.  Joly. 

Prior  to  1872  no  system  of  forestry  had  been  attempted  in  the  United  States. 
The  spasmodic  eff'orts  of  tree  planting  upon  a  small  scale,  with  very  rare  exceptions, 
were  attended  with  the  most  unsatisfactory  results. 

Forests  were  cut  away  without  system  and  without  thought  of  future  condition  or 
wants  until  it  was  self-evident  that  unless  some  judicious  and  comprehensive  forest 
policy  was  adopted,  this  continent,  once  bristling  with  its  primeval  forests,  would 
be  permanently  deprived  of  an  element  which  constitutes  a  most  important  part 
in  the  economy  of  nature. 

Forestry,  no  less  than  science,  is  a  development  of  civilization.  Colbert  was 
instrumental  in  preventing  the  useless  waste  of  the  forests  of  the  old  world,  but  the 
honor  of  bequeathing  to  future  generations  an  invaluable  legacy  of  the  perpetuation 
of  forests  was  reserved  for  a  philanthropist  of  a  more  advanced  age. 

There  is  no  State  in  the  Union  but  needs  such  a  legacy,  and  when  that  which  is 
now  observed  in  twenty-eight  States  becomes  a  national  holiday,  then  will  each  citi- 
zen have  left  to  him  and  to  his  heirs  forever,  under  a  seal  greater  than  that  of  Caesar's, 
"private  arbors  and  new-planted  orchards." 

If  a  John  Howard,  ameliorating  the  evils  of  convict  life  and  alleviating  the  suflFer- 
iugs  of  prisoners,  can  be  called  the  "world's  philanthrapist,"  surely  he  who  origi- 
nates measures  which  tend  directly  to  the  improvement  and  fertility  of  the  land  and 
the  wealth  and  comfort  of  the  inhabitants,  adding  as  many  dollars  to  the  world's 
exchequer  as  the  mines  of  uncoined  ore  produce,  and  more  rays  to  the  brightness  of 
the  world's  civMization  than  the  electric  spark  has  generated,  is  not  least  among 
fellow  men. — A.  J.  Sawyer. 


ARBOR  DAY ITS   HISTORY   AND    OBSERVANCE.  67 

No  man  now  living  has  done  more  to  beautify  and  enrich  his  State  and  country 
than  he.  Millions  upon  millions  of  green  and  living  monuments  attest  his  fore- 
thought and  his  worth ;  and  as  these  trees  grow  and  expand  in  beauty,  so  will  the 
love  of  this  great  benefactor  increase  in  the  hearts  of  our  people. — John  B.  Peaslee. 

The  wisdom  and  pertinency  of  Jonathan  Swift's  saying  may  now  well  be  recalled: 
**And  he  gave  for  his  opinion  that  whoever  could  make  two  ears  of  corn  or  two 
blades  of  grass  to  grow  on  a  spot  of  ground  where  only  one  grew  before  would 
deserve  better  of  mankind,  and  do  more  essential  service  to  his  country  than  the 
whole  race  of  politicians  put  together." 

If  this  were  true  of  two  ears  of  corn  or  blades  of  grass,  how  much  more  of  a 
tree.— T.  F.  Bayard. 

Tribute  of  fruits  be  his,  and  glossy  wreaths 

From  roadside  trees,  and  his  the  people's  love, 
When  east  and  west  the  wind  of  summer  breathes 

Through  orchard,  shaded  path,  and  sighing  grove. 

— [E.  C.  Stedman. 


SUGGESTIONS  FOR  PROGRAMMES. 

It  is  not  necessaxy  to  give  even  a  specimen  pro- 
gramme for  tlie  observance  of  Arbor  Day.  If 
any  attention  to  the  subject  is  given  beforehand 
a  teacher  can  hardly  fail  to  arrange  a  scheme 
of  exercises  that  will  be  both  interesting  and 
profitable,  and  the  pupils  will  not  be  slow  to 
offer  suggestions  which  will  be  worthy  of  consid- 
eration, and  the  more  they  are  allowed  to  have 
a  voice  in  the  arrangements  the  more  interested  will  they  be  in  the  actual 
doings  of  the  day,  and  the  more  beneficial  also  will  these  be  to  them. 

The  exercises  will  naturally  begin  with  the  reading  of  the  proclama- 
tion of  the  governor  of  the  State  or  of  the  superintendent  of  public 
instruction,  by  which  the  day  is  fixed,  or  by  the  law  setting  apart  the 
day  for  special  uses.  Any  or  all  of  these  may  be  read.  They  will  give 
dignity  and  impressiveness  to  the  whole  service.  One  or  more  selec- 
tions from  the  Bible,  indicating  the  high  moral  and  religious  lessons 
which  the  trees  afford  and  the  conspicuous  place  which  they  have  in 
our  sacred  Scriptures,  may  fitly  follow. 

Other  particular  features  of  the  Arbor  Day  exercises  will  be  deter- 
mined by  the  character  of  the  school,  the  age  of  the  pupils,  the  studies 
they  are  commonly  engaged  with,  and  various  other  considerations. 

Teachers  will  bear  in  mind  that  the  observance  of  Arbor  Day  has 
behind  it  a  serious  purpose,  and  that  it  is  not  simply  an  occasion  for 
the  children  "to  have  a  good  time."  It  looks  to  their  education  in  what 
is  highest  and  noblest,  to  bring  their  minds  into  contact  with  the  best 
thoughts  of  other  minds,  and  kindle  in  them  the  purest  and  best  feel- 
ings. It  aims  to  open  their  hearts  to  the  sweet  and  precious  lessons 
which  come  from  intercourse  with  nature,  to  make  them  unselfish,  con- 


68  ARBOR   DAY — ITS   HISTORY   AND   OBSERVANCE. 

siderate  of  one  another  and  of  all  around  them,  a^d  to  prepare  them  to 
lead  noble  and  useful  lives. 

In  view  of  the  duties  of  citizenship  which  are  soon  to  devolve  upon 
them  care  should  be  taken  to  make  the  patriotic  feature  of  the  exer- 
cises for  Arbor  Day  prominent.  Trees  should  be  planted  in  memory 
of  men  who  have  nobly  served  their  country.  Patriotic  songs  should 
be  sung,  and  the  national  flag  should  be  displayed  in  the  schoolhouse 
and  on  the  march  to  plant  the  trees.  Selections  abounding  in  patriotic 
sentiments  should  also  be  read  or  recited.  We  have  given  a  few  speci- 
mens of  appropriate  character  from  various  authors  and  have  made 
reference  to  more,  but  the  pupils  should  be  encouraged  to  find  others 
still. 

The  endeavor  should  be  made  to  give  the  exercises  a  varied  char- 
acter, adapting  them  to  the  younger  pupils  not  less  than  to  the  older. 
On  this  account  songs  and  recitations  of  light  and  seemingly,  perhaps, 
of  somewhat  trivial  character  may  be  allowed  a  place  in  company  with 
those  of  higher  grade.  Let  the  youngest  pupils  become  interested  in 
Arbor  Day  as  soon  as  possible,  if  it  be  only  at  first  by  songs  of  birds 
and  flowers. 

The  programme  for  the  day's  observance  will  be  imperfect  if  it  does 
not  include  as  one  of  its  items  an  account  given  by  some  pupil  of  the 
object  of  Arbor  Day,  describing  its  origin  and  purpose,  and  the  ends 
which  are  sought  to  be  accomplished  by  it.  This  should  be  kept  in 
mind  by  distinct  reference  to  it  from  year  to  year. 

In  places  so  large  that  the  schools  can  not  well  be  combined  in  cele- 
brating Arbor  Day  it  will  conduce  to  the  greater  interest  and  resulting 
benefit  of  the  exercises  if  a  generous  rivalry  is  stimulated  between  the 
schools  in  the  endeavor  to  see  which  will  have  the  most  interesting  and 
pleasing  programme. 

Many  schools  have  been  accustomed  to  adopt  by  vote  some  tree  as 
their  emblematic  tree  or  badge.  This  naturally  causes  the  pupils  to 
give  special  attention  to  that  particular  tree  and  on  Arbor  Day  to 
make  it  the  subject  of  essays,  recitations,  and  songs,  thus  giving  it  the 
chief  place  in  the  exercises.  The  result  may  easily  be  made  to  be  such 
a  knowledge  of  that  particular  tree  as  will  be  pleasant  and  valuable  for 
a  lifetime.  The  choice  of  other  trees  in  the  same  way  from  year  to 
year  will  form  a  very  pleasing  method  of  learning  to  distinguish  the 
various  species  of  trees  from  each  other  and  to  know  their  habits  and 
uses. 

It  is  desirable  that  an  address,  or  more  than  one,  by  some  thoughtful 
person,  invited  for  the  occasion,  should  form  a  feature  of  the  day's 
exercises.  But  the  pupils  should  be  expected  to  furnish  essays  for  the 
occasion  on  appropriate  subjects,  and  to  prepare  them  carefully.  There 
is  given  in  this  bulletin  a  considerable  list  of  such  subjects,  but  one  by 
no  means  exhaustive,  only  suggestive  of  the  many  which  readily  offer 
themselves  for  consideration. 


ARBOR   DAY ITS   HISTORY   AND    OBSERVANCE.  69 

Then  there  is  a  large  field  for  recitations  and  declamations  appropriate 
for  the  day.  A  considerable  number  of  such  may  be  gathered  from  the 
essays  in  the  earlier  part  of  this  publication,  but  our  literature  abounds 
with  them,  and  teachers  should  encourage  their  pupils  to  become 
iamiliar  with  them,  committing  many  of  them  to  memory,  thereby 
enriching  their  minds  with  gems  of  thought  to  be  their  delightful  pos- 
session for  life  and  a  constant  incentive  to  what  is  noblest,  purest,  and 
best. 

MISCELLANEOUS  READINGS. 

We  can  hardly  see  or  think  of  trees  without  being  reminded  of  Mr.  Lowell.  He 
was  eminently  a  lover  of  trees,  and  they  were  the  inspiration  of  some  of  his  best  prose 
and  poetry.  This  love  of  trees  led  him  to  call  his  pleasant  place  of  residence,  in 
Cambridge,  "Elm wood."  And  no  memorial  of  him  would  be  more  accordant  with 
his  own  feelings  than  a  growing  tree.  This  is  abundantly  shown  by  the  following 
letter,  written  only  a  few  years  ago,  when  it  was  proposed  in  one  of  our  schools  to 
plant  on  Arbor  Day  a  tree  in  his  memory : 

**I  can  think  of  no  more  pleasant  way  of  being  remembered  than  by  the  planting 
of  a  tree.  Like  whatever  things  are  perennially  good,  it  will  be  growing  while  we 
are  sleeping,  and  will  survive  us  to  make  others  happier.  Birds  will  rest  in  it  and 
fly  thence  with  messages  of  good  cheer.  I  should  be  glad  to  think  that  any  word 
or  deed  of  mine  could  be  such  a  perennial  presence  of  beauty,  or  show  so  benign  a 
destiny." 

THE  OAK. 

What  gnark'd  stretch,  what  depth  of  shade  is  hisf 
There  needs  no  crown  to  mark  the  forest's  king; 

How  in  his  leaves  outshines  full  summer's  hlissl 
Sun,  storm,  rain,  dew,  to  him  their  tribute  bring, 

"Which  he,  with  such  benignant  royalty- 
Accepts,  as  overpayeth  what  is  lent; 

All  nature  seems  his  vassal  proud  to  be, 
And  cunning  only  for  his  ornament. 

How  towers  he,  too,  amid  the  billowed  snows, 

An  unquelled  exile  from  the  snmmer'a  throne, 
Whose  plain,  uncinctured  front  more  kingly  shows, 

Now  that  the  obscuring  courtier  leaves  are  flown. 
His  boughs  make  music  of  the  winter  air. 

Jeweled  with  sleet,  like  some  cathedral  front 
"Where  clinging  snowflakes,  with  quaint  art,  repair 

The  dents  and  furrows  of  Time's  envious  brunt. 

How  doth  his  patient  strength  the  rude  March  wind 

Persuade  to  seem  glad  breaths  of  summer  breeze, 
And  win  the  soil  that  fain  would  be  unkind. 

To  swell  his  revenues  with  proud  increase! 
He  is  the  gem ;  and  all  the  landscape  wide 

(So  doth  his  grandeur  isolate  the  sense) 
Seems  but  the  setting,  worthless  all  beside. 

An  empty  socket,  were  he  fallen  thence. 

So,  from  oft  converse  with  life's  wintry  gales, 

Should  man  learn  how  to  clasp  with  tougher  roots 
The  inspiring  earth— how  otherwise  avails 

The  leaf-creating  sap  that  sunward  shoots? 
So  every  year  that  falls  with  noiseless  flake 

Should  fill  old  scars  up  on  the  stormward  side^ 
And  make  hoar  age  revered  for  age's  sake, 

Kot  for  traditions  of  youth's  leafy  prido. 


70 


ARBOR   DAY — ITS    HISTORY   AND    OBSERVANCE. 


So,  from  the  pinched  soil  of  a  churlish  fate, 

True  hearts  compel  the  sap  of  sturdier  growth, 
So  between  earth  and  heaven  stand  simply  great, 

That  these  shall  seem  but  their  attendants  both ; 
For  nature's  forces,  with  obedient  zeal 

AVait  on  the  rooted  faith  and  oaken  will, 
As  quickly  the  pretender's  cheat  they  feel. 

And  turn  mad  Pucks  to  iiout  and  mock  him  still. 

Lord !  all  Thy  works  are  lessons— each  contains 

Some  emblem  of  man's  all-containing  soul ; 
Shall  he  make  fruitless  all  Thy  glorious  pains. 

Delving  within  Thy  grace  an  eyeless  mole  ? 
Make  me  the  least  of  Thy  Dodona-grove, 

Cause  me  some  message  of  Thy  truth  to  bring, 
Speak  but  a  word  through  me,  nor  let  Thy  love 

Among  my  boughs  disdain  to  perch  and  sing. 


— [James  Russell  Lowell. 


Live  oak  tree,  Audubon  Park,  New  Orleans,  antedating  the  settlement  of  tbat  country. 


UNDER  THE  WIUOWS. 


This  willow  is  as  old  to  me  as  life; 

And  under  it  full  often  have  I  stretched, 

Feeling  the  warm  earth  like  a  thing  alive. 

And  gathering  virtue  in  at  every  pore 

Till  it  possessed  me  wholly,  and  thought  ceased. 

Or  was  transfused  in  something  to  which  thought 

Is  coarse  and  dull  of  sense.    Myself  was  lost. 

Gone  from  me  like  an  ache,  and  what  remained 

Became  a  part  of  the  universal  joy. 

My  soul  went  forth,  and,  mingling  with  the  tree. 

Danced  in  the  leaves ;  or,  floating  in  the  cloud, 

Saw  its  white  double  in  the  stream  below. 


-[Lowell. 


ABBOR   DAY — ITS   HISTORY   AND   OBSERVANCE.  71 


BENEATH  THE  SHADOW  OP  OAKS, 

I  thank  heaven  every  summer's  day  of  my  life  that  my  lot  was  humbly  cast  within 
the  hearing  of  romping  brooks,  and  beneath  the  shadow  of  oaks,  and  away  from  all 
the  tramp  and  bustle  of  the  world,  into  which  fortune  has  led  me  in  these  latter 
years  of  my  life.  I  delight  to  steal  away  for  days  and  for  weeks  together,  and  bathe 
my  spirit  in  the  freedom  of  the  old  woods,  and  to  grow  young  again  lying  upon  the 
brookside,  and  counting  the  white  clouds  that  sail  along  the  sky,  softly  and  tran- 
quilly, even  as  holy  memories  go  stealing  over  the  vault  of  life. — Donald  G.  Mitchell. 

QUALITY  BETTER  THAN  QUANTITY. 

Not  merely  growing  like  a  tree 

In  bulk  doth  make  man  better  be 

Or  standing  long  an  oak  three  hundred  years, 

To  fall  a  log  at  last,  dry,  bald  and  sear, 

A  lily  of  a  day  is  fairer  far  in  May. 

Although  it  fall  and  die  that  night. 

It  was  the  plant  and  flower  of  light; 

In  small  proportions  we  just  beauties  see 

And  in  short  measure  life  may  perfect  be. 

— [Ben  Jonson. 

THE  TASTE  FOR  TREES. 

There  is  something  noble,  simple,  and  pure  in  a  taste  for  trees.  It  argues,  I  think, 
a  sweet  and  generous  nature  to  have  this  strong  relish  for  beauties  of  vegetation,  and 
this  friendship  for  the  hardy  and  glorious  sons  of  the  forest.  There  is  a  grandeur 
of  thought  connected  with  this  part  of  rural  economy.  It  is  worthy  of  liberal  and 
freebom  and  aspiring  men.     He  who  plants  an  oak  looks  forward  to  future  ages,  and 


plants  for  posterity.  Nothing  can  be  less  selfish  than  this.  He  can  not  expect  to  sit 
in  its  shade  nor  enjoy  its  shelter,  but  he  exults  in  the  idea  that  the  a<}orn  which  he 
has  buried  in  the  earth  shall  grow  up  into  a  lofty  pile  and  shall  keep  on  flourishing 
and  increasing  and  benefiting  mankind  long  after  he  shall  have  ceased  to  tread  his 
paternal  fields. — ^Washington  Irving. 

ACCORDANCE  OF  NATURE. 

For  Nature  beats  in  perfect  tune, 

And  rounds  with  rhyme  her  every  rune, 

"Whether  she  work  in  land  or  sea. 

Or  hide  underground  her  alchemy. 

Thou  cans't  not  wave  thy  staft"  in  air. 

Or  dip  thy  paddle  in  the  lake. 

But  it  carves  the  bow  of  beauty  there, 

And  the  ripples  in  rhymes  the  oar  forsake. 

The  wood  is  wiser  far  than  thou ; 

The  wood  and  wave  each  other  know. 

Not  unrelated,  unaffied, 

But  to  each  thought  and  thing  allied. 

Is  perfect  Nature's  every  part. 

Rooted  in  the  mighty  Heart. 

—[Emerson. 


72  ARBOR   DAY ITS   HISTORY   AND   OBSERVANCE. 


DOING  GOOD. 

When  we  plant  a  tree  we  are  doing  what  we  can  to  make  onr  planet  a  more  whole, 
some  Jind  happier  dwelling  place  for  those  who  come  after  ns,  if  not  for  ourselves. — 
0.  W.  Holmes. 

NOBILITY. 

True  worth  is  in  being,  not  seeming. 

In  (loinaj  each  day  that  goes  by 
Some  little  good— not  in  the  dreaming 

Of  great  things  to  do  by  and  b3\ 

—[Alice  Gary. 


THE  BANK  OF  CONTENTMENT. 

While  I  live,  I  trust  I  shall  have  my  trees,  my  peaceful  idyllic  landscape,  my  free 
country  life,  at  least  half  the  year;  and  while  I  possess  so  much,  *  *  *  I  shall  own 
100,000  shares  in  the  Bank  of  Contentment. — Bayard  Taylor. 


TREES  COMPOSITE  BEINGS. 

A  tree  is  a  composite  being;  a  kind  of  community  by  itself.  The  leaves  and  limbs 
are  all  the  time  striving  with  each  other  to  see  which  shall  have  the  most  room  and 
the  most  sunshine.  Each  strives  for  all  he  can  get.  While  some  perish  in  the 
attempt,  or  meet  with  only  very  indifferent  success,  the  strongest  of  the  strongest 
buds  survive.  Each  leaf  helps  to  sustain  the  limb  which  carries  it,  and  each  limb 
furnishes  some  nourishment  to  the  common  trunk  for  the  common  welfare.  The  tax 
is  always  adjusted  according  to  the  ability  of  each  to  contribute.  As  the  limbs  of 
a  tree  are  constantly  striving  for  the  mastery,  so  each  bush  and  tree  in  grove  or  forest 
is  striving  with  others  for  the  mastery.  The  weakest  succumb  to  the  strongest; 
some  perish  early;  som«  lead  a  feeble  existence  for  many  years,  while  even  the 
strongest  are  more  or  less  injured.  With  plenty  of  room,  the  trunk  will  be  short, 
the  branches  many  and  widespread ;  where  crowded,  the  lower  limbs  perish  for  want 
of  light.  Dead  limbs  fall  to  the  ground  to  protect  and  enrich  it  for  nourishing  the 
surviving  limbs  and  the  trunk.  The  scars  heal  over,  more  limbs  perish  as  new  ones 
creep  upward,  and  thus  we  find  tall,  clean  trunks  in  a  dense  forest. — Anon, 


TEACHING. 

One  impiilse  from  a  vernal  wood 

May  teach  yon  more  of  man, 
Of  moral  evil  and  of  good, 

Than  all  the  sages  can. 

— ["Words  worth. 


OBSERVATION. 

It  is  better  to  know  the  habits  of  one  plant  than  the  names  of  a  thousand;  and 
wiser  to  be  happily  familiar  with  those  that  grow  in  the  nearest  field  than  arduously 
<M<inizant  of  all  that  plume  the  isles  of  the  Pacific  or  illumine  the  Mountains  of  the 
Moon. — Ruskin. 


ARBOR   DAY ITS   HISTORY   AND    OBSERVANCE. 


73 


LEAF-TONGUES  OP  THE  FOREST. 

The  leaf-tongues  of  the  forest,  the  flower- 
lips  of  the  sod, 

The  happy  birds  that  hyion  their  rapture  in 
the  ear  of  God, 

The  summer  wind  that  bringeth  music  over 
land  and  sea, 

Have  each  a  voice  that  singeth  this  sweet 
song  of  songs  to  me ; 

"This  world  is  full  of  beauty,  like  other 
worlds  above 

And  if  we  did  our  duty,  it  might  be  full  of 

love."  — [Gerald  Maasey. 


LESSONS  OF  THE  TREES. 

I  shall  speak  of  trees  as  we  see  tlrem,  love  them,  adore  them  in  the  fields  where 
they  are  alive,  holding  their  green  sunshades  over  our  heads,  talking  to  us  with 
their  hundred  thousand  whispering  tongues,  looking  down  on  us  with  that  sweet 
meekness  which  belongs  to  huge  hut  limited  organism — which  one  sees  most  in  the 
patient  posture,  the  outstretched  arms,  and  the  heavy  drooping  robes  of  these  vast 
beings,  endowed  with  life,  but  not  with  soul— which  outgrow  us  and  outlive  us,  but 
stand  helpless,  poor  things,  while  nature  dresses  and  undresses  them. — Holmes. 

IMPORTANCE  OF  FORESTS. 

Keeping  up  a  fit  proportion  of  forests  to  arable  land  is  the  prime  condition  of 
human  health.  If  the  trees  go,  men  must  decay.  Whosoever  works  for  the  forests 
works  for  the  happiness  and  permanence  of  our  civilization.  A  tree  may  be  an 
obstruction,  but  it  is  never  useless.  Now  is  the  time  to  work  if  we  are  to  be  blessed 
and  not  cursed  by  the  people  of  the  twentieth  and  twenty-first  centuries.  The  nation 
that  neglects  its  forests  is  surely  destined  to  ruin.— Hon.  Elizur  Wright. 

NATU-RE'S  BOOK. 


And  Nature,  the  old  nurse,  took 

The  child  upon  ber  knee, 
Saying :  ' ' Here  is  a  storybook 

Thy  Father  has  written  for  thee." 

**Come,  wander  with  me,"  she  said, 
"Into  regions  yet  untrod; 
And  read  what  is  still  unread 
In  the  manuscripts  of  God." 

And  he  wandered  away  and  away 

"With  Nature,  the  dear  old  nurse, 
Who  sang  to  him  night  and  day 

The  rhymes  of  the  universe. 

And  whenever  the  way  seemed  long, 

Or  his  heart  began  to  fail. 
She  would  sing  a  more  wonderful  song, 

0?  tell  a  more  marvelous  tale. 
•  •  *  *  * 

-.Longfellow--"  The  Fiftieth  Birthday  of  Agasaie.' 


\^     r\t>    -w-i  »r      "•* 


CP 


^ 


74  ARBOR  DAY — ITS   HISTORY   AND    OBSERVANCE. 


BEST  GIFTS. 

Gifts  that  grow  are  best; 

Hands  that  bless  are  bleat; 

Plant:  Life  does  the  rest! 
BeaTen  and  earth  help  him  who  plants  a  tree, 
And  his  work  its  own  reward  shall  be. 

—[Lucy  Larcom. 

SYMPATHY  WITH  TREES. 

I  care  not  how  men  trace  their  ancestry, 

To  ai)o  or  Adam;  let  them  please  their  whimi 

But  I  in  June  am  midway  to  believe 

A  tree  among  my  far  progenitors, 

Such  sympathy  is  mine  with  all  the  race, 

Such  mutual  recognition  vaguely  sweet 

There  is  between  us. 

— [LowelL 

BRYANT,  THE  POET  OP  TREES. 

"  It  is  pleapnnt,"  as  Mr.  George  W.  Curtis  has  said,  "  to  remember,  on  Arbor  Day,  that 
Bryant,  our  oldest  American  poet  and  the  father  of  our  American  literature,  is  espe- 
cially the  poet  of  trees.  He  grew  up  among  the  solitary  hills  of  western  Massachu- 
setts, where  the  woods  were  his  nursery  and  the  trees  his  earliest  comrades.  The 
solemnity  of  the  forest  breathes  through  all  his  verse,  and  he  had  always,  even  in 
the  city,  a  grave,  rustic  air,  as  of  a  man  who  heard  the  babbling  brooks  and  to  whom 
the  trees  told  their  secrets.'' 

His  "Forest  Hymn  "  is  familiar  to  many,  but  it  can  not  be  too  familiar.  It  would 
be  well  if  teachers  would  encourage  their  pupils  to  commit  the  whole,  or  portions 
of  it  at  least,  to  memory.  Let  it  be  made  a  reading  lesson,  but,  in  making  it  such, 
let  pains  be  taken  to  point  out  its  felicities  of  expression,  its  beautiful  moral  tone 
and  lofty  sentiment,  and  its  wise  counsels  for  life  and  conduct.  Nothing  could  be 
more  appropriate,  especially  for  the  indoor  portion  of  the  Arbor  Day  exercises,  than 
to  have  this  poem,  or  portions  of  it,  read  by  some  pupil  in  full  sympathy  with  its 
spirit,  or  by  some  class  in  concert. 

EXTRACT  FROM  BRYANT'S  "FOREST  HYMN." 

Father,  Thy  hand 
Hath  reared  these  venerable  columns;  Thou 
Didst  weave  this  verdant  roof.    Thou  didst  look  dowu 
Upon  the  naked  earth,  and  forthwith  rose 
All  these  fair  ranks  of  trees.     They,  In  Thy  sun, 
Budded,  and  shook  their  green  leaves  in  Thy  breeze, 
And  shot  toward  heaven.    The  century -living  crow 
Whose  birth  was  in  their  tops,  grew  old  and  died 
Among  their  branches,  till,  at  last,  they  stood, 
As  they  now  stand,  massy,  and  tall,  and  dark, 
Fit  shrine  for  humble  worshiper  to  hold 
Communion  with  his  Maker.    These  dim  vaults, 
These  winding  aisles,  of  human  pomp  or  pride 
Heport  not.    No  fantastic  carvings  show 
The  boast  of  our  vain  race  to  change  the  form 
Of  Thy  fair  works.    But  Thou  art  here— Thou  fill's* 
The  solitude.    Thou  art  in  the  soft  winds 
That  run  along  the  summit  of  these  trees 
In  music;  Thou  art  in  the  cooler  breath 
That  from  the  inmost  darkness  of  the  place 
Comes,  scarcely  felt;  the  barky  trunks,  the  ground, 
The  fresh,  moist  gi-ound,  are  all  instinct  with  Thee. 


ARBOR   DAY — ITS   HISTORY   AND   OBSERVANCE.  75 

Here  is  continaal  worship.    Nature,  here, 
In  the  tranquillity  that  Thou  dost  love, 
Enjoys  Thy  presence.    Noiselessly  aroimd, 
Trom  perch  to  perch,  the  solitary  bird 
Passes ;  and  yon  clear  spring,  that,  'midst  its  herbs, 
Wells  softly  forth,  and,  wandering,  steeps  the  roots 
Of  half  the  mighty  forest,  tells  no  tale 
Of  all  the  good  it  does.    Thou  hast  not  left 
Thyself  without  a  witness,  in  these  shades, 
Of  Thy  perfections.    Grandeur,  strength  and  grace 
Are  here  to  speak  of  Thee.    This  mighty  oak— 
By  whose  immovable  stem  I  stand  and  seem 
Almost  annihilated— not  a  prince 
In  all  that  proud  old  world  beyond  the  deep, 
E'er  wore  his  crown  as  loftily  as  he 
Wears  the  green  coronal  of  leaves  with  which 
Thy  hand  has  graced  him.    Nestled  at  his  root 
Is  beauty  such  as  blooms  not  in  the  glare 
Of  the  broad  sun.    That  delicate  forest  iiower, 
With  scented  breath  and  look  so  like  a  smile, 
Seems,  as  it  issues  fr'om  the  shapeless  mold, 
An  emanation  of  the  indwelling  Life, 
A  visible  token  of  the  upholding  Love, 
That  are  the  soul  of  this  wide  universe. 
***** 

Be  it  ours  to  meditato 
In  these  calm  shades,  Thy  milder  majesty, 
And  to  the  beautiliil  order  of  Thy  works 
Learn  to  conform  the  order  of  our  lives. 

— [Bryant. 

BLESSING  FOR  THE  TREE  PLANTER. 

O  painter  of  the  fruits  and  flowers  ! 

We  thank  Thee  for  thy  wise  design 
Whereby  these  human  hands  of  ours 

In  nature's  garden  work  with  Thine. 
***** 
Give  fools  their  gold  and  knaves  their  power; 

Let  fortune's  bubbles  rise  and  fall; 
Who  sows  a  field  or  trains  a  flower, 

Or  plants  a  tree  is  more  than  all. 

For  he  who  blesses  most  is  blest ; 

And  God  and  man  shall  own  his  worth 
Who  toils  to  leave  as  his  bequest 

An  added  beauty  to  the  earth. 

And,  soon  or  late,  to  all  who  sow, 

The  time  of  harvest  shall  be  given; 
The  flower  shall  bloom,  the  fruit  shall  groTf, 

If  .not  on  earth,  at  last  in  heaven. 

— [Whittier. 

GREAT  CRYPTOMERIA  AVENUE  OP  JAPAN. 

The  people  of  a  certain  locality  in  Japan,  it  is  said,  love  to  tell  this  story  of  what 
Is  perhaps  the  most  heautiful  road  in  the  Japanese  Empire.  When  the  great  general 
and  lawgiver  lyecsasu  died,  his  former  tributary  princes  vied  with  one  another  in 
rich  mortuary  gifts  to  perpetuate  his  memory.  One  daimio,  loving  and  loyal,  instead 
of  the  customary  gift  of  rare  bronze  or  wrought  stone  to  honor  his  dead  lord,  gave 
from  his  forest  land  thousands  of  cryptomeria  trees,  which  he  wisely  knew  would 
be  an  ever-growing  delight  for  generations  in  a  densely  populated  region. 

These  young  trees,  which  were  then  but  18  inches  or  more  lu  height,  he  planted 
at  equal  distaucea  along  the  two  roads  leading  to  NikkO|  where  the  body  of  the 


76.  ARBOR   DAY — ITS    HISTORY   AND   OBSERVANCE. 

dead  prince  was  interrt^^d.  Two  hundred  years  have  passed,  and  the  trees,  so  small 
when  planted,  are  giants  now,  whose  branches  interlock  across  the  wide  road- 
way, presenting  to  the  traveler  in  either  direction  a  vista  of  green  as  far  as  the  eye 
can  reach.  Extending  for  30  miles  in  one  direction,  and  for  20  miles  in  another, 
these  rows  of  noble  trees  meet  7  miles  from  the  temple  where  lie  the  ashes  of  the 
honored  dead,  and  for  this  last  7  miles  a  double  row  of  trees  is  found  on  each  side  of 
the  roadway.  In  describing  this  unique  and  very  beautiful  tribute  of  respect  and 
affection,  a  recent  traveler  says : 

"Many  who  visit  Nikko  may  forget  the  loveliness  of  the  mountain  scenery,  the 
waterfalls  and  rushing  streams,  the  carving  and  gilding  of  the  temples,  the  soft, 
low  tone  of  the  bells,  the  odor  of  incense,  and  the  chanting  of  priests,  but  few  will 
forget  their  20  miles'  ride  beneath  the  over-arching  branches  of  the  stately  trees. 
What  more  beautiful  memorial  could  be  suggested  than  this,  which  benefits  rich 
and  poor,  prince  and  coolie,  alike,  while  mere  bronze  lanterns  and  costly  but  dead 
memorial  stones  are  of  no  service  except  as  reminders  of  a  bygone  age?" 

These  trees  have  been  growing  for  two  centuries;  a  half  dozen  generations  have 
enjoyed  their  coolness,  their  beauty,  refreshing  to  tired  eyes  and  weary  limbs,  and 
they  will  be  the  delight  of  generations  to  come. — Prof.  J.  P.  McCaskey. 

AN  APRIL  DAY. 

When  the  warm  sun,  that  brings 
Seedtime  and  harvest,  has  returned  again, 
'Tis  sweet  to  visit  the  still  wood,  where  springs 

The  first  flower  of  the  plain. 

From  the  earth's  loosened  mold 
The  sapling  draws  its  sustenance,  and  thrives; 
Though  stricken  to  the  heart  with  winter's  cold, 

The  drooping  tree  revives. 

The  softly  warbled  song 
Comes  from  the  pleasant  woods,  and  colored  wings 
Glance  quick  in  the  bright  sun,  that  moves  along 

The  forest  openings. 
***** 

Sweet  April !  many  a  thought 
Is  wedded  unto  thee,  as  hearts  are  wed; 
Nor  shall  they  fail,  till,  to  its  autumn  brought, 

Life's  golden  fruit  is  shed. 

—  [  Longfellow. 

THE  WOODS  AND  THE  COURT. 
Intlieforestof  Arden,  Shakespeare  makes  the  banished  duke  say  to  his  companions: 

"Now,  my  co-mates  and  brothers  in  exile, 
Hath  not  old  custom  made  this  life  more  sweet 
Than  that  of  painted  pomp  ?    Are  not  these  woods 
More  free  from  peril  than  the  envious  court? 
Here  feel  we  but  the  penalty  of  Adam, 
The  seasons"  difference;  as  the  icy  fang 
And  churlish  chiding  of  the  winter's  wind, 
Which,  when  it  bites  and  blows  upon  my  body, 
Even  till  I  shrink  with  cold,  I  smile  and  say: 

'  This  is  no  flattery ;  these  are  counsellors 

That  feelingly  persuade  me  what  1  am.' 
Sweet  are  the  uses  of  adversity;      *      *      * 

***** 
And  this  our  life,  exempt  from  public  haunt, 
Finds  tongues  in  trees,  books  in  the  running  brooks, 
Sermons  in  stones,  and  good  in  everything." 

—[As  You  Like  It,  act  2,  scene  1. 


ARBOR   DAY ITS    HISTORY   AND    OBSERVANCE. 


77 


THE  SPIRIT  OP  POETRY. 

There  is  a  quiet  spirit  in  these  woods, 
That  dwells  where'er  the  gentle  south  wind  blows; 
"Where  underneath  the  white-thorn,  in  the  glade, 
The  wild  flowers  bloom,  or,  kissing  the  soft  air, 
The  leaves  above  their  sunny  palms  outspread. 
With  what  a  tender  and  impassioned  voice 
It  fills  the  nice  and  delicate  ear  of  thought, 
"When  the  fast-ushering  star  of  morning  cornea 
O'erriding  the  gray  hills  with  golden  scarf; 
Or  when  the  cowled  and  dusky-sandaled  Eve, 
In  mourning  weeds,  from  out  the  western  gate, 
Departs  with  silent  pace !    That  spirit  moves 
In  the  green  valley,  where  the  silver  brook, 
From  its  full  laver,  pours  the  white  cascade; 
And,  babbling  low  amid  the  tangled  woods. 

Slips  down  through  moss-grown  stones  with  endless  laughter. 

And  frequent,  on  the  everlasting  hills. 

Its  feet  go  forth,  when  iffloth  wrap  itself 

In  all  the  dark  embroidery  of  the  storm, 

And  shouts  the  stem,  strong  wind.    And  here,  amid 

The  silent  majesty  of  these  deep  woods. 

Its  presence  shall  uplift  thy  thoughts  from  earth, 

As  to  the  sunshine  and  the  pure,  bright  air, 

Their  tops  the  green  trees  lift.    *    *    * 

—[Longfellow, 


SELECTIONS  FOR  RECITATIONS. 

THE  PURPOSE  OP  ARBOR  DAY. 

To  avert  treelessness ;  to  improve  the  climatic  conditions;  for  the  sanitation  and 
embellishment  of  home  environments ;  for  the  love  of  the  beautiful  and  useful  com- 
bined in  the  music  and  majesty  of  a  tree,  as  fancy  and  truth  unite  in  an  epic  poem, 
Arbor  Day  was  created.  It  has  grown  with  the  vigor  and  beneficence  of  a  grand 
truth  or  a  great  tree. — J.  Sterling  Morton. 

POREST  HYMN. 

The  groves  were  God's  first  temples.    Ere  man  learned 

To  hew  the  shaft,  and  lay  the  architrave. 

And  spread  the  roof  above  them — ere  he  framed 

The  lofty  vault,  to  gather  and  roll  back 

The  sound  of  anthems ;  in  the  darkling  wood. 

Amidst  the  cool  and  silence,  he  knelt  down, 

And  offered  to  the  Mightiest  solemn  thanks 

And  supplication.    For  his  simple  heart 

Might  not  resist  the  sacred  influences 

Which,  from  the  stilly  twilight  of  the  place, 

And  from  the  gray  old  trunks  that  high  in  heaven 

Mingled  their  mossy  boughs,  and  from  the  sound 

Of  the  invisible  breath  that  swayed  at  once 

All  their  green  tops,  stole  over  him,  and  bowed 

His  spirit  with  the  thought  of  boundless  power 

And  inaccessible  majesty.    Ah,  why 

Should  we,  in  the  world's  riper  years,  neglect 

God's  ancient  sanctuaries,  and  adore 

Only  among  the  crowd,  and  under  roofs 

That  our  frail  hands  have  raised  ?    Let  me,  at  least, 

Here,  in  the  shadow  of  this  aged  wood. 

Offer  one  hymn— thrice  happy  if  it  find 

Acceptance  in  His  ear. 


—[Bryant. 


78  ARBOR   DAY — ITS   HISTORY   AND   OBSERVANCE. 

LEAVES. 

The  leaves  of  tlie  herbage  at  our  feet  take  all  kinds  of  strange  shapes,  as  if  to  invite 
us  to  examine  them.  Star-shaped,  heart-shaped,  spear-shaped,  arrow-shaped,  fretted, 
fringed,  cleft,  furrowed,  serrated,  sinuated,  in  whorls,  in  tufts,  in  spires,  in  wreaths, 
endlessly  expressive,  deceptive,  fantastic,  never  the  same  from  footstalk  to  blossom, 
they  seem  perpetually  to  tempt  our  watchfulness  and  take  delight  in  outstripping 
our  wonder. — Ruskin. 

INFLUENCE  OP  NATURE. 

Therefore  am  I  gtill 
A  lover  of  the  meadows  aad  the  woods 
And  mountains,  and  of  all  that  we  behold 
Prom  this  green  earth ;  of  all  the  mighty  world 
Of  eye  and  ear,  both  what  they  half  create 
And  what  perceive;  well  pleased  to  recognize 
In  nature,  and  the  language  of  the  sense. 
The  anchor  of  my  purest  thoughts,  the  nurse, 
The  guide,  the  guardian  of  my  heart,  and  soul, 
Of  all  my  moral  being. 

— ["Wordsworth. 


THE  FOREST  A  HERITAGE. 

I  regard  the  forest  as  an  heritage,  given  to  us  by  nature,  not  for  spoil  or  to  devas- 
tate, but  to  be  wisely  used,  reverently  honored,  and  carefully  maintained.  I  regard 
the  forest  as  a  gift  intrusted  to  us  only  for  transient  care  during  a  short  space  of 
time,  to  be  surrendered  to  posterity  again  as  unimpaired  property,  with  increased 
riches  and  augmented  blessings,  to  pass  as  a  sacred  patrimony  from  generation  to 
generation. — Baron  Ferdinand  von  Mueller. 

STEADFASTNESS. 

A  little  of  thy  steadfastness, 
Bounded  with  leafy  gracefulness, 

Old  oak,  give  me — 
That  the  w«)rld's  blasts  may  round  me  blow, 
And  I  yield  gently  to  and  fro, 
"While  my  stout-hearted  trunk  below 

And  firm-set  roots  unshaken  be. 

—[Lowell. 

THE  WASHINGTON  ELM. 

This  tree  still  stands  at  Cambridge,  Mass.  It  is  on  Garden  street,  a  short  distance 
from  the  colleges,  and  is  a  large,  well-preserved  tree.  An  iron  fence  is  built  around 
it,  and  on  a  stone  in  front  is  the  following  inscription:  ''Under  this  tree  George 
Washington  took  command  of  the  American  Army,  July  3,  1775." 

Beneath  our  consecrated  elm 

A  century  ago  he  stood, 

Famed  vaguely  for  that  old  fight  in  the  wood 
"Whose  red  surge  sought,  but  could  not  overwhelm 
The  life  foredoomed  to  wield  our  rough- hewn  helm> 

***** 
Firmly  erect,  he  towered  above  them  all, 
The  incarnate  discipline  that  was  to  free 
"With  iron  curb  that  armed  democracy. 

— tJ^owell—  "Under  the  Old  Elm.** 


AEBOR   DAY ITS    HISTORY   AND    OBSERVANCE.  79 


WEALTH  IN  WOOD. 

The  true  basis  of  national  wealth  is  not  gold,  but  wood.*  Forest  destruction  is 
the  sin  that  has  caused  us  to  lose  our  earthly  paradise.  War,  pestilence,  storms, 
fanaticism,  and  intemperance,  together  with  all  other  mistakes  and  misfortuoes, 
have  not  caused  half  as  much  permanent  damage  as  that  fatal  crime  against  the 
fertility  of  our  Mother  Earth. — Felix  L.  Oswald. 

SUBJECTS  FOR  DECLAMATION 

Character  of  Washington Thomas  Jefferson 

Eulogium  on  Washington Daniel  Webster 

Antiquity  of  Freedom Bryant 

PaulRevere's  Ride Longfellow 

Story  of  Bunker  Hill  Battle O.  W.  Holmes 

The  American  Flag T. J.  Rodman  Drake 

Centennial  Hymn Whittier 

Tribute  to  Abraham  Lincoln J.  R.  Lowell 

Sheridan's  Ride Read 

Song  of  Marion's  Men Bryant 

Centennial  Song Bayard  Taylor 

America S.  F.  Smith 

The  Flag  of  the  Union George  P.  Morris 

Union  and  Liberty O.  W.  Holmes 

Other  selections  for  recitation  or  declauiation,  a  few  out  of  the  maDy, 
are  the  following: 

A  June  Day Lowell:  SirLaunfal 

Planting  of  the  Apple  Tree Bryant 

The  Last  Leaf Holmes 

Under  the  Greenwood  Tree Shakespeare 

Among  the  Trees Bryant 

The  Spirit  of  Poetry Longfellow 

Plant  a  Tree Lucy  Larcom 

The  Prairies Bryant 

Popular  Poplar  Tree Blanch  W.  Howard 

Woodman,  Spare  that  Tree Morris 

The  Ivy  Green Dickens 

The  Oak Lowell 

The  Pine  Tree Emerson 

Fair  Tree Lady  Winchelsea 

Hiawatha,  extracts  from Longfellow 

Landing  of  the  Pilgrims Mrs.  Hemans 

Love  of  Nature Wordsworth 

May  Queen Tennyson 

Discourse  on  Trees Beecher 


80  ARBOR   DAY ITS    HISTORY    AND    OBSERVANCE. 

TOPICS  FOR  ARBOR  DAY  ESSAYS. 

Celebrated  trees. 
Short  history  of  Arbor  Day. 
What  Arbor  Day  is  for. 
How  to  plant  a  tree. 
Best  trees  to  plant. 
The  most  useful  tree. 
Trees  and  their  relation  to  birds. 
Trees  aud  their  relation  to  tishes. 
Varieties  of  trees  on  our  iarin. 

,  Schoolhonses:  What  they  are  aud  what  they  should  be. 
Schoolgrounds :  How  to  improve  them. 
What  the  leaves  do. 
Best  trees  to  plant  on  the  roadside. 
Planting  nut- bearing  trees:  Encouragement  for  it. 
Best  trees  and  shrubs  for  ornamental  planting. 

What  to  do  with  sigus  that  are  nailed  to  trees  and  fences  and  painted  on  the  rocks. 
How  to  do  away  with  rubbish  on  the  roadsides. 
Advantages  of  good  sidewalks. 
Roads  and  walks,  and  how  to  make  them. 
How  to  make  Arbor  Day  most  useful. 
Teaching  of  botany  and  horticulture  in  schools. 


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